Origin of X-ray emission from the pre-main sequence Herbig Ae/Be stars

We propose to survey the Xray emission of the premain sequence Herbig Ae/Bestars. Speculations concerning the origin of this Xray emission have beenoffered. They include processes involving massive accretion disks, magneticstellar coronae, strong stellar winds, or attribute the Xray emission to alowmass companion. We intend to observe unbiased samples of Herbig Ae/Be starswith the XMM EPIC pn camera: one sample of such stars showing signs of massiveaccretion disks, one sample with signatures of stellar winds, and one sample ofbinary systems including one Herbig star and one T Tauri companion. Differencesin detection rates, Xray luminosity distributions, Xray energy distributionsbetween these three samples will enable us to test the various interpretations. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]