Outbursts in Symbiotic Binaries

Astronomers have been aware of the outbursts in classical symbiotic binaries forover one hundred years, and yet the cause and nature of these outbursts is stillnot well understood. The underlying physical processes are probably related tothose in dwarf novae and/or the supersoft Xray sources, but they occur in asignificantly different environment. We propose to perform a series ofobservations with XMM of any symbiotic on our target list that outbursts duringAO1. These observations will allow us to follow the simultaneous Xray and UVspectral evolution of a symbiotic during outburst and therefore place strongconstraints on outburst models. In addition, the Xray line emission fromshock heated colliding winds will provide information about their composition. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]