Gaia21bja: pre-main sequence star with quasi-periodic bursts

Abstract

Gaia21bja is a Gaia alerted young stellar object (YSO) that exhibits at least seven quasi-peridoic brightenings over a 20 year-long light curve with durations of 1.5-2 years and amplitudes up to $\sim$1.7 mag in the Gaia $G$-band. We analyze its optical and near-infrared photometry and spectra taken using the IRTF and VLT in its faint and bright states in order to characterize its physical properties. A Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis results in a most significant period of $916\pm 77$ days. We derived the stellar parameters as $R_{\star }=0.78\pm 0.04R_{\odot }$, $L_{\star }=(4.5\pm 0.3)\times 10^{-2}{L}_{\odot }$, and $M_{\star }=0.16\pm 0.03M_{\odot }$. The spectra taken during the burst are dominated by emission lines and are similar to those of EX Lupi-type eruptive young stars (EXors). We found that the accretion luminosity and mass accretion rate increased by a factor of $5.5-6$ during the burst. Based on this, and the quasi-periodic bursts, we suggest that Gaia21bja is an eruptive YSO, and is most consistent with the `Periodic' category of the Outbursting YSOs Catalogue.

Accepted to ApJ