  Recent observations of the low-mass pre-main sequence, eccentric
spectroscopic binaries DQ Tau and V773 Tau A reveal that their millimeter
spectrum is occasionally dominated by flares from non-thermal emission
processes. The transient activity is believed to be synchrotron in nature,
resulting from powerful magnetic reconnection events when the separate magnetic
structures of the binary components are capable of interacting and forced to
reorganize, typically near periastron. We conducted the first systematic study
of the millimeter variability toward a sample of 12 PMS spectroscopic binaries
with the aim to characterize the proliferation of flares amongst sources likely
to experience similar interbinary reconnection events. The source sample
consists of short-period, close-separation binaries that possess either a high
orbital eccentricity or a circular orbit. Using the MAMBO2 array on the IRAM
30m telescope, we carried out continuous monitoring at 1.25 mm over a 4-night
period during which all of the high-eccentricity binaries approached
periastron. We also obtained simultaneous optical VRI measurements, since a
strong link is often observed between stellar reconnection events and optical
brightenings. UZ Tau E is the only source to be detected at millimeter
wavelengths: it exhibited significant variation; it is also the only source to
undergo strong simultaneous optical variability. The binary possesses the
largest orbital eccentricity in the current sample, a predicted factor in
star-star magnetic interaction events. With orbital parameters and variable
accretion activity similar to DQ Tau, the millimeter behavior of UZ Tau E draws
many parallels to the DQ Tau model for colliding magnetospheres. However, on
the basis of our observations alone, we cannot determine whether the
variability is repetitive, or if it could also be due to variable free-free
emission in an ionized wind.
