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Herbig Ae/Be stars are young contracting stars on the radiative track in the HR diagram on their way to the main sequence. These stars provide a valuable link between high and low mass stars. Here we review the progress that has been made in our understanding of these fascinating objects and their disks since the last major review on this topic published in 1998. We begin with a general overview of these stars and their properties. We then discuss the accretion of circumstellar material onto these stars. Next we discuss the dust and gas properties of the circumstellar disk before exploring the evidence for planet formation in these disks. We conclude with a brief discussion of future prospects for deepening our understanding of these sources and propose a new working definition of Herbig Ae/Be stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first evidence is found of the existence of circumstellar gas in the nearest surroundings of the UX Ori star RZ Psc. Spectra obtained at the Terskol Observatory, Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), and the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) reveal a strong variability in the sodium doublet lines that is indicative of a sporadic outflow of matter. Weak variability was also observed in the core of the Hα line. One nontrivial feature of this discovery is that RZ Psc is of spectral class K0 IV. This means that the star has no intrinsic energy resources for creating the observed outflow of matter. There are no emission lines in the star’s spectrum which might indicate that matter is falling into the star so that the observed outflow could be related to an accretion process. We suggest, nevertheless, that the ejection of gas is related to residual (slow) accretion and is driven by a propeller mechanism. The latter is possible if the star has a sufficiently high (on the order of 10 3 G) magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that the gas surrounding a hot star is excited mainly by the stellar radiation field. The contribution of the excited states to the ionization rate R can noticeably exceed that of the basic state R. A simple approximation formula is obtained for the ratio R/ R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]