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We present a $approx 11.5$ year adaptive optics (AO) study of stellar variability and search for eclipsing binaries in the central $sim 0.4$ pc ($sim 10$) of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster. We measure the photometry of 563 stars using the Keck II NIRC2 imager ($K$-band, $lambda_0 = 2.124 text{ } mu text{m}$). We achieve a photometric uncertainty floor of $Delta m_{K} sim 0.03$ ($approx 3%$), comparable to the highest precision achieved in other AO studies. Approximately half of our sample ($50 pm 2 %$) shows variability. $52 pm 5%$ of known early-type young stars and $43 pm 4 %$ of known late-type giants are variable. These variability fractions are higher than those of other young, massive star populations or late-type giants in globular clusters, and can be largely explained by two factors. First, our experiment time baseline is sensitive to long-term intrinsic stellar variability. Second, the proper motion of stars behind spatial inhomogeneities in the foreground extinction screen can lead to variability. We recover the two known Galactic center eclipsing binary systems: IRS 16SW and S4-258 (E60). We constrain the Galactic center eclipsing binary fraction of known early-type stars to be at least $2.4 pm 1.7%$. We find no evidence of an eclipsing binary among the young S-stars nor among the young stellar disk members. These results are consistent with the local OB eclipsing binary fraction. We identify a new periodic variable, S2-36, with a 39.43 day period. Further observations are necessary to determine the nature of this source.
We report the results of a diffraction-limited, photometric variability study of the central 5x5 of the Galaxy conducted over the past 10 years using speckle imaging techniques on the W. M. Keck I 10 m telescope. Within our limiting magnitude of mK <
The Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey consists in a near-infrared time-series survey of the Galactic bulge and inner disk, covering 562 square degrees of the sky, over a total timespan of more than 5 years. In this paper, we p
We discuss the stellar content of the Galactic Center, and in particular, recent estimates of the star formation rate (SFR). We discuss pros and cons of the different stellar tracers and focus our attention on the SFR based on the three classical Cep
We present preliminary results of our hst Pa$alpha$ survey of the Galactic Center (gc), which maps the central 0.65$times$0.25 degrees around Sgr A*. This survey provides us with a more complete inventory of massive stars within the gc, compared to p
Using 25 years of data from uninterrupted monitoring of stellar orbits in the Galactic Center, we present an update of the main results from this unique data set: A measurement of mass of and distance to SgrA*. Our progress is not only due to the eig