Luminous X-ray spectra in novae outflows

We propose to observe the early X-ray emission of the ejecta of twonovae in outburst, a classical or short-period recurrent nova, anda rarer symbiotic one (i.e., known to be a red giant binary). Theywill be observed when, with the Swift XRT, we establish that they aresufficiently luminous for high quality RGS spectra and that the central,luminous supersoft X-ray source does not outshine the ejecta yet. TheX-ray spectra of nova winds probe the nova kinematics, its chemistry andconnections with the phenomena observed at other wavelengths,includingthe intriguing gamma-ray emission. High resolution X-ray spectra of theoutflowing material, without a major contribution yet of the centralsource, have seldom been obtained; we do need to broaden the sample toexplore the complex physics.