Periodic LINEAR Variables

Abstract

We provide LINEAR light curve data and SDSS, 2MASS and WISE photometry (when available) for a clean sample of 7194 LINEAR variables with demonstrated periodic variability and visual light curve classification. The construction of starting LINEAR catalog is described in Sesar et al. 2011 (Astronomical Journal, 142, 190). The final light curve classification and period verification are described in Palaversa et al. 2013 (Astronomical Journal, 146, 101).

Note: a related paper is analysis of somewhat deeper sample of RR Lyrae stars by Sesar et al. 2013 (Astronomical Journal, 146, 21). Here is Table 1 from this paper, which lists positions and light curve parameters for 5,683 candidate RR Lyrae (for description of columns, see the paper). LINEAR light curves for these stars are available as gzip-ed tar archive of simple text files (MJD, mag, magErr, flag), and as a collection of plots (png) of their phased light curves.

Introduction

The main purpose of this site is to make publicly available a catalog of 7194 variable objects (mostly periodic variable stars) with light curves extracted from the asteroid survey LINEAR across 10,000 sq.deg. of sky. The sample flux limit is several magnitudes fainter than for most other wide-angle surveys; the photometric errors range from about 0.03 mag at V=15 to 0.20 mag at V=18. Light curves include on average 250 data points, collected over about a decade, and are visually confirmed and classified using phased light curves. The reliability and uniformity of visual classification across eight human classifiers was calibrated and tested using a catalog of variable stars from the SDSS Stripe 82 region, and verified using unsupervised machine learning approach. The resulting sample is dominated by 3,900 RR Lyrae stars and 2,700 eclipsing binary stars of all subtypes, and includes small fractions of relatively rare populations such as asymptotic giant branch stars and SX Phoenicis stars. The distribution of these mostly uncataloged variables in various diagrams constructed with optical-to-infrared SDSS, 2MASS and WISE photometry, and with LINEAR light curve features, is discussed in Palaversa et al. (2013). This large sample of robustly classified variable stars can enable detailed statistical studies of Galactic structure and physics of binary and other stars.

The following data files contain LINEAR light curve data, and SDSS, 2MASS and WISE photometric data. The first four files are simple text files and all are smaller than 1 MB. Their content is described in the file headers. The last two files are tar.gz archives and are much larger.

1) LINEAR light curve parameters

2) SDSS data

3) 2MASS and WISE data

4) A clean sample of 6146 LINEAR variables for testing automated classification methods.

5) Light curve data for all 7146 objects (gzip-ed: 17 MB).

6) Simple plots (png) of all light curves and phased light curves (gzip-ed: 344 MB).

Funding

This research has been supported by NSF grants AST-0707901 and AST-1008784 to the University of Washington, by NSF grant AST-0551161 to LSST for design and development activity, by the Croatian National Science Foundation grant O-1548-2009, and by the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training (GREAT-ITN) Marie Curie network, funded through the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n264895.

Referencing

The reference entry for this catalog is Palaversa et al. 2013 (Astronomical Journal, 146, 101).

Acknowledgements

The LINEAR program is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at MIT Lincoln Laboratory under Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002.

Funding for the creation and distribution of the SDSS Archive has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society. The SDSS Web site is http://www.sdss.org/.

The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are The University of Chicago, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, The Johns Hopkins University, the Korean Scientist Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington.

This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

Thank you very much! Your friendly purveyors of fine astronomical catalogs,


   Željko Ivezić  (1,2)
   Lovro Palaversa (2,3) 
   Branimir Sesar (1,4)
   J. Scott Stuart (5) 
   and collaborators 

(1) University of Washington
(2) University of Zagreb 
(3) Now at the Geneva Observatory 
(4) Now at Caltech
(5) Lincoln Laboratory, MIT

If you need more information, please do let us know!

Version 1.0 from April 22, 2013