An IUE atlas of pre-main-sequence stars. I. Co-added final archive spectrafrom the SWP camera

We have identified 50 T Tauri stars (TTS) and 74 Herbig Ae/Be (HAEBE) stars observed in the IUE short-wavelength bandpass (1150-1980 Angstrom). Each l ow-resolution (R similar to 6 Angstrom) spectrum was visually inspected for source contamination and data quality, and then all good spectra were comb ined to form a single time-averaged spectrum for each star. Use of IUE Fina l Archive spectra processed with NEWSIPS reduces fixed pattern noise in ind ividual spectra, allowing significant signal-to-noise ratio gains in our co -added spectra. For the TTS observed by IUE, we measured fluxes and uncerta inties for 17 spectral features, including two continuum windows and four f luoresced H-2 complexes. Thirteen of the 32 accreting TTS observed by IUE h ave detectable H-2 emission, which until now had been reported only for T T au. Using an empirical correlation between H-2 and C IV line flux, we show that lack of sensitivity can account for practically all nondetections, sug gesting that H-2 fluorescence may be intrinsically strong in all accreting TTS systems. Comparison of IUE and GHRS spectra of T Tau show extended emis sion primarily, but not exclusively, in lines of H-2. We also fit reddened main-sequence templates to 72 HAEBE stars, determining extinction and check ing spectral types. Several of the HAEBE stars could not be fitted well or yielded implausibly low extinctions, suggesting the presence of a minority emission component hotter than the stellar photosphere, perhaps caused by w hite dwarf companions or heating in accretion shocks. We identified broad w avelength intervals in the far-UV that contain circumstellar absorption fea tures ubiquitous in B5-A4 HAEBE stars, declining in prominence for earlier spectral types, perhaps caused by increasing ionization of metal resonance lines. For 61 HAEBE stars, we measured or set upper limits on a depth index that characterizes the strength of circumstellar absorption and compared t his depth index with published IR properties.