Variability-finding in Rubin Data Preview 1 with LSDB

TL;DR

This paper introduces two variability-finding pipelines using LSDB and HATS for Rubin Data Preview 1, enabling validation of analysis methods for LSST's large-scale time-domain astronomy data, with initial discoveries including novel variables.

Contribution

It presents innovative variability-finding pipelines tailored for LSST-scale data using LSDB and HATS, demonstrating their effectiveness on Rubin DP1 data.

Findings

Detection of variable objects in Rubin DP1 data

Identification of two novel variable objects

Validation of new analysis pipelines for LSST data

Abstract

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory recently released Data Preview 1 (DP1) in advance of the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will enable boundless discoveries in time-domain astronomy over the next ten years. DP1 provides an ideal sandbox for validating innovative data analysis approaches for the LSST mission, whose scale challenges established software infrastructure paradigms. This note presents a pair of such pipelines for variability-finding using powerful software infrastructure suited to LSST data, namely the HATS (Hierarchical Adaptive Tiling Scheme) format and the LSDB framework, developed by the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing (LINCC) Frameworks team. This article presents a pair of variability-finding pipelines built on LSDB, the HATS catalog of DP1 data, and preliminary results of detected variable objects, two of which are novel discoveries.