Near-Infrared Variability in the Orion Nebula Cluster

Using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea, we have carried out a new near-infrared J, H, K monitoring survey of almost a square degree of the star-forming Orion Nebula Cluster with observations on 120 nights over three observing seasons, spanning a total of 894 days. We monitored ~15,000 stars down to J=20 using the WFCAM instrument, and have extracted 1203 significantly variable stars from our data. By studying variability in young stellar objects (YSOs) in the H-K, K color-magnitude diagram, we are able to distinguish between physical mechanisms of variability. Many variables show color behavior indicating either dust-extinction or disk/accretion activity, but we find that when monitored for longer periods of time, a number of stars shift between these two variability mechanisms. Further, we show that the intrinsic timescale of disk/accretion variability in young stars is longer than that of dust-extinction variability. We confirm that variability amplitude is statistically correlated with evolutionary class in all bands and colors. Our investigations of these 1203 variables have revealed 73 periodic AA Tau type variables, many large-amplitude and long-period (P > 15 day) YSOs, including three stars showing widely-spaced periodic brightening events consistent with circumbinary disk activity, and four new eclipsing binaries. These phenomena and others indicate the activity of long-term disk/accretion variability processes taking place in young stars. We have made the light curves and associated data for these 1203 variables available online.

Near-infrared Variability among YSOs in the Star Formation Region Cygnus OB7

We present an analysis of near-infrared time-series photometry in J, H, and K bands for about 100 epochs of a 1 square degree region of the Lynds 1003/1004 dark cloud in the Cygnus OB7 region. Augmented by data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), we identify 96 candidate disk bearing young stellar objects (YSOs) in the region. Of these, 30 are clearly Class I or earlier. Using the Wide-Field imaging CAMera (WFCAM) on the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT), we were able to obtain photometry over three observing seasons, with photometric uncertainty better than 0.05 mag down to J ~17. We study detailed light curves and color trajectories of ~50 of the YSOs in the monitored field. We investigate the variability and periodicity of the YSOs and find the data are consistent with all YSOs being variable in these wavelengths on time scales of a few years. We divide the variability into four observational classes: 1) stars with periodic variability stable over long timescales, 2) variables which exhibit short-lived cyclic behavior, 3) long duration variables, and 4) stochastic variables. Some YSO variability defies simple classification. We can explain much of the observed variability as being due to dynamic and rotational changes in the disk, including an asymmetric or changing blocking fraction, changes to the inner disk hole size, as well as changes to the accretion rate. Overall, we find that the Class I:Class II ratio of the cluster is consistent with an age of < 1Myr, with at least one individual, wildly varying, source ~ 100,000 yr old. We have also discovered a Class II eclipsing binary system with a period of 17.87 days.

Near-IR Field Variable Stars in Cygnus OB7

We present a subset of the results of a three season, 124 night, near-infrared monitoring campaign of the dark clouds Lynds 1003 and Lynds 1004 in the Cygnus OB7 star forming region. In this paper, we focus on the field star population. Using three seasons of UKIRT J, H and K band observations spanning 1.5 years, we obtained high-quality photometry on 9,200 stars down to J=17 mag, with photometric uncertainty better than 0.04 mag. After excluding known disk bearing stars we identify 149 variables - 1.6% of the sample. Of these, about 60 are strictly periodic, with periods predominantly < 2 days. We conclude this group is dominated by eclipsing binaries. A few stars have long period signals of between 20 and 60 days. About 25 stars have weak modulated signals, but it was not clear if these were periodic. Some of the stars in this group may be diskless young stellar objects with relatively large variability due to cool star spots. The remaining ~60 stars showed variations which appear to be purely stochastic.

Near-IR Variability in Young Stars in Cygnus OB7

We present the first results from a 124 night J, H, K near-infrared monitoring campaign of the dark cloud L 1003 in Cygnus OB7, an active star-forming region. Using 3 seasons of UKIRT observations spanning 1.5 years, we obtained high-quality photometry on 9,200 stars down to J=17 mag, with photometric uncertainty better than 0.04 mag. On the basis of near-infrared excesses from disks, we identify 30 pre-main sequence stars, including 24 which are newly discovered. We analyze those stars and find the NIR excesses are significantly variable. All 9,200 stars were monitored for photometric variability; among the field star population, about 160 exhibited near-infrared variability (1.7% of the sample). Of the 30 YSOs (young stellar objects), 28 of them (93%) are variable at a significant level. 25 of the 30 YSOs have near-infrared excess consistent with simple disk-plus-star classical T Tauri models. Nine of these (36%) drift in color space over the course of these observations and/or since 2MASS observations such that they cross the boundary defining the NIR excess criteria; effectively, they have a transient near-infrared excess. About half of the YSOs have color-space variations parallel to either the classical T Tauri star locus or a hybrid track which includes the dust reddening trajectory. This indicates that the NIR variability in YSOs that possess accretion disks arises from a combination of variable extinction and changes in the inner accretion disk: either in accretion rate, central hole size and/or the inclination of the inner disk. While some variability may be due to stellar rotation, the level of variability on the individual stars can exceed a magnitude. This is a strong empirical suggestion that protoplanetary disks are quite dynamic and exhibit more complex activity on short timescales than is attributable to rotation alone or captured in static disk models.