Young Stars and their Variability with LSST

Young stars exhibit short-term photometric variability caused by mass accretion events from circumstellar disks, the presence of dusty warps within the inner disks, starspots that rotate across the stellar surfaces, and flares. Long-term variability also occurs owing to starspot longevity and cycles...

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Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Bonito, Rosaria, Hartigan, Patrick, Venuti, Laura, Guarcello, Mario, Prisinzano, Loredana, Argiroffi, Costanza, Messina, Sergio, Johns-Krull, Christopher, Feigelson, Eric, Stauffer, John, Giannini, Teresa, Antoniucci, Simone, Sciortino, Salvo, Micela, Giusi, Pillitteri, Ignazio, Fedele, Davide, Podio, Linda, Damiani, Francesco, McGehee, Peregrine, Street, Rachel, Gizis, John, Sacco, Germano, Magrini, Laura, Flaccomio, Ettore, Orlando, Salvatore, Miceli, Marco, Stelzer, Beate, Fuchs, Julien, Chen, Sophia, Pikuz, Sergey, Frasca, Antonio, Biazzo, Katia, Codella, Claudio, Pastorello, Andrea, Alcala', Juan Manuel, Covino, Elvira, Bianchi, Eleonora, Nisini, Brunella
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 07.12.2018
Subjects
Accretion disks
Space telescopes
Star formation
Starspots
Stellar age
Stellar surfaces
Variability
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Summary:Young stars exhibit short-term photometric variability caused by mass accretion events from circumstellar disks, the presence of dusty warps within the inner disks, starspots that rotate across the stellar surfaces, and flares. Long-term variability also occurs owing to starspot longevity and cycles, and from changes in stellar angular momenta and activity as the stars age. We propose to observe the Carina star-forming region in different bands with a cadence of 30 minutes every night for one week per year to clarify the nature of both the short-term and long-term variability of the thousands of young stars in this region. By obtaining well-sampled multicolor lightcurves of this dense young cluster, LSST would acquire the first statistically significant data on how these objects vary on both short and long timescales. This information will allow us to relate the observed variability to stellar properties such as mass, age, binarity, and to environmental properties such as location within or exterior to the H II region, and to the presence or absence of a circumstellar disk.
ISSN:2331-8422