The Palomar Transient Factory Orion Project: Eclipsing Binaries and Young Stellar Objects

Creators: van Eyken, Julian C.; Ciardi, David R.; Rebull, Luisa M.; Stauffer, John R.; Akeson, Rachel L.; Beichman, Charles A.; Boden, Andrew F.; von Braun, Kaspar; Gelino, Dawn M.; Hoard, D. W.; Kane, Stephen R.; Plavchan, Peter; Ramirez, Solange; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R.; Ofek, Eran O.; Quimby, Robert M.; Grillmair, Carl J.; Laher, Russ; Surace, Jason A.

Abstract

The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) Orion project is one of the experiments within the broader PTF survey, a systematic automated exploration of the sky for optical transients. Taking advantage of the wide (3°.5 × 2°.3) field of view available using the PTF camera installed at the Palomar 48 inch telescope, 40 nights were dedicated in 2009 December to 2010 January to perform continuous high-cadence differential photometry on a single field containing the young (7-10 Myr) 25 Ori association. Little is known empirically about the formation of planets at these young ages, and the primary motivation for the project is to search for planets around young stars in this region. The unique data set also provides for much ancillary science. In this first paper, we describe the survey and the data reduction pipeline, and present some initial results from an inspection of the most clearly varying stars relating to two of the ancillary science objectives: detection of eclipsing binaries and young stellar objects. We find 82 new eclipsing binary systems, 9 of which are good candidate 25 Ori or Orion OB1a association members. Of these, two are potential young W UMa type systems. We report on the possible low-mass (M-dwarf primary) eclipsing systems in the sample, which include six of the candidate young systems. Forty-five of the binary systems are close (mainly contact) systems, and one of these shows an orbital period among the shortest known for W UMa binaries, at 0.2156509 ± 0.0000071 days, with flat-bottomed primary eclipses, and a derived distance that appears consistent with membership in the general Orion association. One of the candidate young systems presents an unusual light curve, perhaps representing a semi-detached binary system with an inflated low-mass primary or a star with a warped disk, and may represent an additional young Orion member. Finally, we identify 14 probable new classical T-Tauri stars in our data, along with one previously known (CVSO 35) and one previously reported as a candidate weak-line T-Tauri star (SDSS J052700.12+010136.8).

Additional Information

© 2011 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2011 March 30; accepted 2011 June 12; published 2011 July 15. The authors thank Cesar Briceño for providing the reference stars for zero-point calibration, and for his advice regarding field selection; and Tim Lister, Rachel Street, Andrej Prša, David Bradstreet, Ed Guinan, and Adam Krauss, for valuable discussions and input. S.B.C. wishes to acknowledge generous support from Gary and Cynthia Bengier, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Swift grant NNX10AI21G, NASA/Fermi grant NNX1OA057G, and National Science Foundation (NSF) grant AST–0908886. Observations obtained with the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory as part of the PTF project, a scientific collaboration between the California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Las Cumbres Observatory, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, the University of Oxford, and the Weizmann Institute of Science. 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. This work is based in part on archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC/ NExScI Star and Exoplanet Database, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research has made use of the VizieR catalogue access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France. Support for this work was provided by an award issued by JPL/Caltech. Facilities: PO:1.2m (PTF), Spitzer

Attached Files

Published - 1538-3881_142_2_60.pdf

Submitted - 1106.3570v2.pdf

Files

1106.3570v2.pdf

Files (17.7 MB)

Name	Size	Download all
1106.3570v2.pdf md5:35526a339de733ee2b1db6059d44320f	4.7 MB	Preview Download
1538-3881_142_2_60.pdf md5:5c38ceead3340c03b14d9ad6e48e68fe	13.0 MB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes