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High resolution spectra of 30 Herbig Ae/Be stars are examined for evidence of accretion disk activity. These young, intermediate mass stars ($1.5 < M/M_{\odot} < 20$) have been cast as higher mass analogs of classical T Tauri stars: solar type pre-main sequence stars thought to be surrounded by circumstellar accretion disks. We investigate this analogy by comparing spectral diagnostics attributed to accretion phenomena in the classical T Tauri stars with comparable quantities in the Herbig Ae/Be stars.
Spectral types and projected equatorial rotational velocities (vsini) are determined, and standard photospheric stellar templates are subtracted from the Ae/Be stellar spectra. The residual spectra are then used to examine the following accretion diagnostics: (1) the frequency of direct mass inflow signatures as exhibited by inverse P-Cygni line profiles, (2) relations between Balmer and forbidden line emission and infrared color indices, (3) limits on any optical continuum excess, or spectral ``veiling", which, if produced in a hot boundary layer, sets limits on mass accretion rates.
