Exploring Young Stellar Variability with Gaia DR3 light curves

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Hauptverfasser: Mas, Chloé, Roquette, Julia, Audard, Marc, Madarász, Mate, Marton, Gabor, Hernandez, David, Gezer, Ilknur, Dionatos, Odysseas
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Mas, Chloé
Roquette, Julia
Audard, Marc
Madarász, Mate
Marton, Gabor
Hernandez, David
Gezer, Ilknur
Dionatos, Odysseas
author_facet Mas, Chloé
Roquette, Julia
Audard, Marc
Madarász, Mate
Marton, Gabor
Hernandez, David
Gezer, Ilknur
Dionatos, Odysseas
contents Context: Photometric variability is a defining characteristic of young stellar objects (YSO), which can be traced back to a range of physical processes taking place at different stages of young stars' formation and early evolution. Gaia's third Data Release (GDR3) has provided an unprecedented dataset of photometric time series, including 79375 light curves for YSO candidates. With its all-sky coverage, Gaia provides a unique opportunity for large-scale studies of YSO variability. Aims: Our goal was to characterise the GDR3 sample of YSO variables further and verify the recurrence of YSO variability modes due to accretion, extinction, rotation modulation, etc. By adapting the Q&M methodology for Gaia's sparse and long-term light curves, we seek to bridge the gap between low and high-cadence surveys' insights on YSO variability. Methods: We piloted the application of the asymmetry (M) and periodicity (Q) variability metrics to characterise YSO variability with Gaia light curves. Through refined sample selection, we identified sources with appropriate sampling for the Q&M methodology. We used the Generalised Lomb Scargle periodogram and structure functions to infer variability timescales. Results: We successfully derived Q&M indices for ~23000 sources in the GDR3 YSO sample. These variables were then classified into eight variability morphological classes. We linked morphological classes with physical mechanisms by using H$α$ as a proxy of accretion and $α_\mathrm{IR}$-indices to gauge circumstellar material's presence. Conclusions: We demonstrate that the Q&M metrics can be successfully applied to Gaia's sparse time-series. We applied them to distinguish between the several variability modes. While our results are generally consistent with previous high-cadence, short-term studies, we find that GDR3's long timespan yields an enhanced variety of variability mechanisms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_23530
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exploring Young Stellar Variability with Gaia DR3 light curves
Mas, Chloé
Roquette, Julia
Audard, Marc
Madarász, Mate
Marton, Gabor
Hernandez, David
Gezer, Ilknur
Dionatos, Odysseas
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Context: Photometric variability is a defining characteristic of young stellar objects (YSO), which can be traced back to a range of physical processes taking place at different stages of young stars' formation and early evolution. Gaia's third Data Release (GDR3) has provided an unprecedented dataset of photometric time series, including 79375 light curves for YSO candidates. With its all-sky coverage, Gaia provides a unique opportunity for large-scale studies of YSO variability. Aims: Our goal was to characterise the GDR3 sample of YSO variables further and verify the recurrence of YSO variability modes due to accretion, extinction, rotation modulation, etc. By adapting the Q&M methodology for Gaia's sparse and long-term light curves, we seek to bridge the gap between low and high-cadence surveys' insights on YSO variability. Methods: We piloted the application of the asymmetry (M) and periodicity (Q) variability metrics to characterise YSO variability with Gaia light curves. Through refined sample selection, we identified sources with appropriate sampling for the Q&M methodology. We used the Generalised Lomb Scargle periodogram and structure functions to infer variability timescales. Results: We successfully derived Q&M indices for ~23000 sources in the GDR3 YSO sample. These variables were then classified into eight variability morphological classes. We linked morphological classes with physical mechanisms by using H$α$ as a proxy of accretion and $α_\mathrm{IR}$-indices to gauge circumstellar material's presence. Conclusions: We demonstrate that the Q&M metrics can be successfully applied to Gaia's sparse time-series. We applied them to distinguish between the several variability modes. While our results are generally consistent with previous high-cadence, short-term studies, we find that GDR3's long timespan yields an enhanced variety of variability mechanisms.
title Exploring Young Stellar Variability with Gaia DR3 light curves
topic Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.23530