Swift Observations of Novae

Kim Page

Although Swift was designed as a Gamma-Ray Burst mission, its rapid-response capability also makes it ideal for following up other transient sources, such as novae. The Swift Nova-CV group aims to observe all Galactic novae with a peak V magnitude of 8 or brighter and has performed some intensive monitoring campaigns, following novae throughout their outbursts.

In this talk, I will introduce the Swift mission and present some of the nova highlights, including the unexpected high-amplitude flux changes often seen at the start of the super-soft emission and the differing relationships between the X-ray and UV variability.