Contents of: VI/111/./abstract/RGEHRZ_PROP_164.abs

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 Infrared observations of classical novae have established their
 importance as laboratories for studying astrophysical grain
 formation, and as contributors to abundance anomalies in the
 interstellar medium. Studies of abundances in nova ejecta also
 provide information about nucleosynthesis in the white dwarf
 progenitor and in the thermonuclear runaway during a nova explosion.
 Two key, virtually unexplored problems that our proposed ISO
 investigations will address are the documentation of the detailed
 spectral energy distributions and the temporal characteristics of
 classical novae at wavelengths greater than 20 microns. Examination
 of the IRAS database shows that a number of old novae are
 anomalously bright at 25, 60, and 100 microns. This wavelength
 regime contains many forbidden lines from heavy elements that are
 useful for excitation and abundance studies. Continuum emission and
 broad emission features at these wavelengths give information about
 dust grains. In contrast to the Central Program nova observations,
 the proposed source list overlaps heavily with the IRAS database, so
 that the nature of the IRAS detections can be deduced. Our choice
 of objects and scientific problems is designed to produce an
 understanding of fundamental differences between evolved CO and
 ONeMg novae. Specifically, our proposed ISO initiative seeks to
 address four research problems in the study of classical nova
 evolution: 1) chemical abundances of nova ejecta from coronal and
 forbidden emission line spectroscopy; 2) frequency of the
 occurrence of ONeMg novae from observations of the emission lines
 in the ejecta of old IRAS novae; 3) grain size distribution and
 mineral composition of nova dust; and 4) dynamical studies of nova
 ejecta. The criteria imposed by our science objectives in these
 areas require us to obtain ISO observations of novae not contained
 in the ISO Central Program.