Variable Point Sources in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82. I. Project Description and Initial Catalog (0 h < R.A. < 4 h)

Abstract

We report the first results of a study of variable point sources identified using multi-color time-series photometry from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 over a span of nearly 10 years (1998-2007). We construct a light-curve catalog of 221,842 point sources in the R.A. 0-4 h half of Stripe 82, limited to r = 22.0, that have at least 10 detections in the ugriz bands and color errors of < 0.2 mag. These objects are then classified by color and by cross-matching them to existing SDSS catalogs of interesting objects. We use inhomogeneous ensemble differential photometry techniques to greatly improve our sensitivity to variability. Robust variable identification methods are used to extract 6520 variable candidates in this dataset, resulting in an overall variable fraction of ~2.9% at the level of 0.05 mag variability. A search for periodic variables results in the identification of 30 eclipsing/ellipsoidal binary candidates, 55 RR Lyrae, and 16 Delta Scuti variables. We also identify 2704 variable quasars matched to the SDSS Quasar catalog (Schneider et al. 2007), as well as an additional 2403 quasar candidates identified by their non-stellar colors and variability properties. Finally, a sample of 11,328 point sources that appear to be nonvariable at the limits of our sensitivity is also discussed. (Abridged.)

67 pages, 27 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJS. Catalog available at http://shrike.pha.jhu.edu/stripe82-variables

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• A Periodically Varying Luminous Quasar at z=2 from the Pan-STARRS1 Medium Deep Survey: A Candidate Supermassive Black Hole Binary in the Gravitational Wave-Driven Regime
• The Color Variability of Quasars
• A Systematic Search for Periodically Varying Quasars in Pan-STARRS1: An Extended Baseline Test in Medium Deep Survey Field MD09
• Long-term eclipse timing of white dwarf binaries: an observational hint of a magnetic mechanism at work
• Periodic Variability of Low-Mass Stars in SDSS Stripe 82
• Kepler Studies of Low-Mass Eclipsing Binaries I. Parameters of the Long-Period Binary KIC 6131659
• The Close Binary Fraction of Dwarf M Stars
• The sdA problem I: Physical Properties
• Sky Surveys
• A Search for Optical Variability of Type 2 Quasars in SDSS Stripe 82
• New Insights into Time Series Analysis - I - Correlated observations
• The VVV Infrared Variability Catalog (VIVA-I)
• The Space Density of Post-Period Minimum Cataclysmic Variables
• Spectral Identification of the u-band Variable Sources in Two LAMOST fields