Year: 2007
Type: article
Abstract: We quantify the variability of faint unresolved optical sources using a catalog based on multiple SDSS imaging observations. The catalog covers SDSS Stripe 82, and contains 58 million photometric observations in the SDSS ugriz system for 1.4 million unresolved sources. In each photometric bandpass we compute various low-order lightcurve statistics and use them to select and study variable sources. We find that 2% of unresolved optical sources brighter than g=20.5 appear variable at the 0.05 mag level (rms) simultaneously in the g and r bands. The majority (2/3) of these variable sources are low-redshift (<2) quasars, although they represent only 2% of all sources in the adopted flux-limited sample. We find that at least 90% of quasars are variable at the 0.03 mag level (rms) and confirm that variability is as good a method for finding low-redshift quasars as is the UV excess color selection (at high Galactic latitudes). We analyze the distribution of lightcurve skewness for quasars and find that is centered on zero. We find that about 1/4 of the variable stars are RR Lyrae stars, and that only 0.5% of stars from the main stellar locus are variable at the 0.05 mag level. The distribution of lightcurve skewness in the g-r vs. u-g color-color diagram on the main stellar locus is found to be bimodal (with one mode consistent with Algol-like behavior). Using over six hundred RR Lyrae stars, we demonstrate rich halo substructure out to distances of 100 kpc. We extrapolate these results to expected performance by the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and estimate that it will obtain well-sampled 2% accurate, multi-color lightcurves for ~2 million low-redshift quasars, and will discover at least 50 million variable stars.
Source: The Astronomical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/521819
Authors: Branimir Sesar, Željko Ivezić, Robert H. Lupton, Mario Jurić, James E. Gunn, Gillian R. Knapp, Nathan De Lee, J. Allyn Smith, Gajus Miknaitis, Huan Lin, Douglas Tucker, Mamoru Doi, Masayuki Tanaka, Masataka Fukugita, Jon Holtzman, Steve Kent, Brian Yanny, David Schlegel, Douglas Finkbeiner, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Constance M. Rockosi, Nicholas Bond, Brian Lee, Chris Stoughton, Sebastian Jester, Hugh Harris, Paul Harding, Jon Brinkmann, Donald P. Schneider, Donald York, Michael W. Richmond, Daniel Vanden Berk
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Princeton University, Ohio State University, University of Chicago, University of Washington, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pittsburgh, Case Western Reserve University, Drexel University, Universität Basel, University of Portsmouth, New Mexico State University, University of Cambridge, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, U.S. Naval Observatory, Fermilab, Los Alamos National Laboratory
OpenAlex ID: W269682840