Infrared-excess sources in VVV: candidate debris discs, SED characterization, and variability analysis
Abstract
Debris disks around main-sequence stars provide important insights into planetary formation and evolution; however, identifying these systems in the Galactic plane, where high interstellar extinction and source crowding are significant, remains challenging. Deep, wide-area surveys such as the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey provide multi-epoch infrared observations, enabling systematic searches in these environments. We present a method to construct a refined sample of main-sequence candidates by cross-matching data from Gaia DR3, GLIMPSE, DECaPS, and VIRAC2, to identify infrared excesses through spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis, and to analyse time-series data to detect variability potentially associated with circumstellar material or other astrophysical phenomena. Although infrared excess is commonly associated with debris disks, contributions from unresolved binaries or line-of-sight contamination cannot be excluded. Applying this methodology to the VVV tile d077 using the VIRAC2 catalogue, we analyse an initial sample of 879,556 sources and identify 446 sources flagged by the VO SED Analyser (VOSA) excess-detection algorithm as having infrared excess, of which 171 show candidate periodic variability in the VIRAC2 Ks-band light curves. We further perform SED fitting using theoretical models to derive physical parameters and approximate spectral types for these sources. This work provides a catalogue of infrared-excess candidates in a Galactic field affected by high extinction, along with a reproducible method suitable for future large-scale applications.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{esteves2026infraredexcess,
title = {{Infrared-excess sources in VVV: candidate debris discs, SED characterization, and variability analysis}},
author = {P. Esteves and R. K. Saito and C. Chavero and V. Fermiano and D. Minniti and B. W. Borges and C. Cáceres and Z. Guo and V. D. Ivanov and R. G. Kurtev and D. Quispe and R. M. Torres},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.03119},
eprint = {2609.03119},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03119},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Infrared-excess sources in VVV: candidate debris discs, SED characterization, and variability analysis
AU - P. Esteves
AU - R. K. Saito
AU - C. Chavero
AU - V. Fermiano
AU - D. Minniti
AU - B. W. Borges
AU - C. Cáceres
AU - Z. Guo
AU - V. D. Ivanov
AU - R. G. Kurtev
AU - D. Quispe
AU - R. M. Torres
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.03119
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.03119
AB - Debris disks around main-sequence stars provide important insights into planetary formation and evolution; however, identifying these systems in the Galactic plane, where high interstellar extinction and source crowding are significant, remains challenging. Deep, wide-area surveys such as the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) ESO Public Survey provide multi-epoch infrared observations, enabling systematic searches in these environments. We present a method to construct a refined sample of main-sequence candidates by cross-matching data from Gaia DR3, GLIMPSE, DECaPS, and VIRAC2, to identify infrared excesses through spectral energy distribution (SED) analysis, and to analyse time-series data to detect variability potentially associated with circumstellar material or other astrophysical phenomena. Although infrared excess is commonly associated with debris disks, contributions from unresolved binaries or line-of-sight contamination cannot be excluded. Applying this methodology to the VVV tile d077 using the VIRAC2 catalogue, we analyse an initial sample of 879,556 sources and identify 446 sources flagged by the VO SED Analyser (VOSA) excess-detection algorithm as having infrared excess, of which 171 show candidate periodic variability in the VIRAC2 Ks-band light curves. We further perform SED fitting using theoretical models to derive physical parameters and approximate spectral types for these sources. This work provides a catalogue of infrared-excess candidates in a Galactic field affected by high extinction, along with a reproducible method suitable for future large-scale applications.
ER -