Variable Stars in the Quintuplet stellar cluster with the VVV Survey

Abstract

The Quintuplet cluster is one of the most massive star clusters in the Milky Way, situated very close to the Galactic center. We present a new search for variable stars in the vicinity of the cluster, using the five-year database of the Vista Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey in the near-infrared. A total of 7586 objects were identified in the zone around $2^{\prime }$ from the cluster center, using 55 $K_S$-band epochs. Thirty-three stars show $K_S$-band variability, 24 of them being previously undiscovered. Most of the variable stars found are slow/semiregular variables, long-period variables of the Mira type, and OH/IR stars. In addition, a good number of our candidates show variations in a rather short timescale. We also propose four Young Stellar Object (YSO) candidates, which could be cluster members.

arXiv comment14 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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• An Automated tool to detect variable sources in the Vista Variables in the V\'ıa Láctea Survey. The VVV Variables (V${}^4$) catalog of tiles d001 and d002
• Candidate star clusters toward the inner Milky Way discovered on deep-stacked Ks-band images from the VVV Survey
• Long-term Stellar Variability in the Galactic Centre Region
• Deep PSF photometric catalog of the VVV survey data