The JCMT Transient Survey: Four-year Summary of Monitoring the Submillimeter Variability of Protostars
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Author
Lee, Yong-Hee
Johnstone, Doug
Lee, Jeong-Eun
Herczeg, Gregory
Mairs, Steve
Contreras-Peña, Carlos
Hatchell, Jennifer
Naylor, Tim
Bell, Graham S.
Bourke, Tyler L.
Broughton, Colton
Francis, Logan
Gupta, Aashish
Harsono, Daniel
Liu, Sheng-Yuan
Park, Geumsook
Plovie, Spencer
Moriarty-Schieven, Gerald H.
Scholz, Aleks
Sharma, Tanvi
Teixeira, Paula Stella
Wang, Yao-Te
Aikawa, Yuri
Bower, Geoffrey C.
Chen, Huei-Ru Vivien
Bae, Jaehan
Baek, Giseon
Chapman, Scott
Chen, Wen Ping
Du, Fujun
Dutta, Somnath
Forbrich, Jan
Guo, Zhen
Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro
Kang, Miju
Kirk, Helen
Kuan, Yi-Jehng
Kwon, Woojin
Lai, Shih-Ping
Lalchand, Bhavana
Lane, James M. M.
Lee, Chin-Fei
Liu, Tie
Morata, Oscar
Pearson, Samuel
Pon, Andy
Sahu, Dipen
Shang, Hsien
Stamatellos, Dimitris
Tang, Shih-Yun
Xu, Ziyan
Yoo, Hyunju
Attention
2299/26943
Abstract
We present the four-year survey results of monthly submillimeter monitoring of eight nearby ($<500 $pc) star-forming regions by the JCMT Transient Survey. We apply the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram technique to search for and characterize variability on 295 submillimeter peaks brighter than 0.14 Jy beam$^{-1}$, including 22 disk sources (Class II), 83 protostars (Class 0/I), and 190 starless sources. We uncover 18 secular variables, all of them protostars. No single-epoch burst or drop events and no inherently stochastic sources are observed. We classify the secular variables by their timescales into three groups: Periodic, Curved, and Linear. For the Curved and Periodic cases, the detectable fractional amplitude, with respect to mean peak brightness, is $\sim4$ % for sources brighter than $\sim$ 0.5 Jy beam$^{-1}$. Limiting our sample to only these bright sources, the observed variable fraction is 37 % (16 out of 43). Considering source evolution, we find a similar fraction of bright variables for both Class 0 and Class I. Using an empirically motivated conversion from submillimeter variability to variation in mass accretion rate, six sources (7 % of our full sample) are predicted to have years-long accretion events during which the excess mass accreted reaches more than 40 % above the total quiescently accreted mass: two previously known eruptive Class I sources, V1647 Ori and EC 53 (V371 Ser), and four Class 0 sources, HOPS 356, HOPS 373, HOPS 383, and West 40. Considering the full protostellar ensemble, the importance of episodic accretion on few years timescale is negligible, only a few percent of the assembled mass. However, given that this accretion is dominated by events of order the observing time-window, it remains uncertain as to whether the importance of episodic events will continue to rise with decades-long monitoring.