New Periodic Variables from the Hipparcos Epoch Photometry

Two selection statistics are used to extract new candidate periodic variables from the epoch photometry of the Hipparcos catalogue. The primary selection criterion is a signal to noise ratio. The dependence of this statistic on the number of observations is calibrated using about 30 000 randomly permuted Hipparcos datasets. A significance level of 0.1% is used to extract a first batch of candidate variables. The second criterion requires that the optimal frequency be unaffected if the data are de-trended by low order polynomials. We find 2675 new candidate periodic variables, of which the majority (2082) are from the Hipparcos “unsolved” variables. Potential problems with the interpretation of the data (e.g. aliasing) are discussed.