FINDING PERIODIC VARIABLE IN
THE NSVS
The Northern Sky Variability Survey was searched for
periodic variables. Periods were searched from 0.01 -365 days for all light
curves with 20 points or more. Two
distinct methods were used: the string/rope (S-L) length method based on the
Lafler-Kinman statistic (Clarke, D. 2002 A&A,
386, 763) and the analysis of variance method (AoV) (Schwarzenberg-Czerney, A. 1989, MNRAS, 241,153). Of the
over 17 million light curves with more than 20 points deemed ÔgoodÕ data by the
NSVS, over 84000 were found to have periodicity. Since the NSVS contains some duplicate light curves the
actual number of stars with suspected periodic variability is somewhat fewer
than that.
Over 13000 of these light curves have been inspected by eye to
refine the periodicity and to assign a type of variability. These are in typed.cat.Z while
those not looked at are in untyped.cat.Z. More information on the catalog is in README.doc or README.txt.
I would like to thank all of those who assisted in this endeavor. (Listed with the institution they were at during their contribution,)
Jeffery Coughlin (Emory University)
Susan Chung (University of Georgia)
Cece Hedrick (University of Nebraska)
David Hou (Athens Academy)
Nicole Kelley (U. of California, Berkeley)
Travis McIntyre (Clemson University)
Yelena Pelimskaya (Lehigh University)
Christine Shaw (Athens Academy)
Searches targeted at specific types of variables in the NSVS also resulted in new members of rare types of variable stars
Eclipsing Binaries with subdwarf B
(sdB) stars
GS Binaries (eclipsing systems
with both components a subgiant or giant star)