Outbursts in Symbiotic Binaries

Astronomers have been aware of the outbursts in classical symbiotic binariesfor over one hundred years, and yet the cause and nature of these outbursts isstill not well understood. The underlying physical processes are probably related to those in dwarf novae and/or the supersoft Xray sources, but they occurin a significantly different environment. We propose to continue our AO1 programwith a series of XMM observations of the first symbiotic on our target list thatoutbursts during the AO2 period. These observations will allow us to follow thesimultaneous Xray and UV spectral evolution during outburst, and thereforeplace strong constraints on models. The Xray line emission from shock heatedcolliding winds will provide information about the composition of these winds. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]