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# Signatures of collective local and nanoscale distortions in diffraction experiments

## I Introduction

Diffraction by X-rays (XRD) in the laboratory and at synchrotron facilities and neutrons at special sources are some of the most venerable experimental methods in Physics, having made a prominent contribution in establishing many basic concepts in atomic and solid state physics. In particular, our understanding of XRD is so profound that it is routinely used for obtaining structural information about crystalline solids. In conjunction with very powerful structural analysis algorithms, it is a matter of hours to identify the crystallographic positions of the atoms of an unknown crystalline material. However, diffraction analysis relies on the well-founded paradigm of crystalline solids as the periodic repetition of a small pattern of atoms (the unit cell). Even though this description of solids can be considered as one of the pillars in the construction of the modern condensed matter physics, it is also true that the vast majority of real solids exhibit one or another form of structural disorder. Aperiodic disorder manifests itself in the structure factor as diffuse scatteringWelberry1995 ; Warren1990 . Although it is possible to extract information from the diffuse part of the scattering, the analysis is complicated and relies strongly on the particular structural model chosen. The possibility therefore exists for uniqueness problems that make it very difficult to gain reliable information about the disorder present in real solids. Thus, conventional crystallographic analysis of diffraction patterns provides an excellent description of the average long-range arrangements of the coherent fraction of the atoms, without providing definitive or even incisive information about local distortions that may be coupled to the compelling properties of many complex materials.

To put all these facts on a more formal basis, analysis of the Bragg peaks provides only information about the average positions, thermal disorder, and site occupancies. That it, conventional analysis of Bragg peaks provides a mean field description of the solid. In contrast, the diffuse part of the scattering contains information about two-point correlations and therefore can be a rich source of information about how pairs of atoms or molecules interact with each other. However, as we briefly mentioned above, extracting information from the diffuse scattering is still far from routine. Traditionally, two main approaches have been used to understand the diffuse part of the diffraction pattern in the kinematic limit: The first is based on a real space formulation in terms of a set of short-range chemical and displacement pair correlations, which is specially useful when a small set of correlation parameters can describe the diffraction pattern and another one based on a reciprocal space formulation in terms of the modulations of the real space structure associated with sharp features in $`k`$-space. Obviously, this later approach is especially useful when sharp features are present in the diffuse part of the diffraction pattern. Aside from the fact that some of the approximations involved in the previous approaches are sometimes difficult to justify (i.e. retaining only the first few terms of a Taylor expansion), the main problem is that of uniqueness. As described above, diffuse scattering contains information only about the pair correlations. Therefore, many different atomic configurations can lead to the same set of pair correlations (while having very different higher order correlations, i.e., while representing completely different configurations) compatible with the set of parameters obtained from the analysis of the diffraction pattern by using these approaches, making the determination of the real structure of the material ambiguous. However, as very well put by Welberry and ButlerWelberry1994 , the ultimate goal of diffraction analysis is to obtain a realistic model of the structure of the material that is consistent with the observed diffraction pattern. In this sense, important progress has been done during recent years by using a method that, in some sense, is the converse of the aforementioned mathematical modeling. The idea is to develop a structural model that incorporates all the physical or chemical constraints already known from the system under consideration. This model is implemented in the computer (by using Monte Carlo methods) in such a way that the calculated diffraction pattern qualitatively agree with the experimental one and quantitative refinements of the model are iteratively implemented by taking into account the numerical constraints obtained from the aforementioned mathematical models. In this way, many unphysical configurations compatible with the diffraction data are discarded from the outset. In spite of the formidable computational requirements demanded by this approach, it has already shown its usefulness in analyzing and obtaining structural information of various systems, e.g., Fe3(CO)12Welberry1998 , cubic stabilized zirconia, and disordered organic molecular crystalsWelberry2001 ; Welberry1994 ; Welberry1995 . From these arguments, we can easily understand the importance of complementing conventional diffraction data with local probes, such as X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurementsConradson1998  and pair distribution functions (PDF). The long-range average order can be determined by using conventional analysis of the Bragg peaks while the local structure can be determined by using XAFS and PDF. This information about the local structure around each element can be used for constructing physical structural models that can be provided as input for the Monte Carlo methods for analyzing the mesoscale structural information contained in the diffuse scattering and to obtain pair distribution functions.

The necessity of using the previous hierarchical approach to the problem of determining the real structure of solids has become even more evident with the increasing realization that local lattice distortions may act collectively to produce nanoscale phase separation and heterogeneity (multiple different ordered domains), which are essential ingredients in understanding the physical properties of complex systemsConradson2002 . This is the case, for example, of substitutional impurities in solid solutionsIce1999 . If the impurity atoms attract or repel each other, heterogeneous nanoscale domains or texture will be formed in the solid. Additional examples of these kinds of effects are charge separation and charge ordering in colossal magnetoresistance compounds high $`T_c`$ superconductors leading to the formation of charge density waves and stripesXu2000 ; Zaanen2000 ; Moreo1999 ; Dagotto2001 ; Tranquada1995 ; Tranquada2002 . These effects give rise to ordered electronic distributions that are easily observed in diffraction experiments as superlattice or satellite peaks.

However, the situation is radically different in the presence of aperiodic phase separation below the limit of “long” range order, i.e., when the structure of the solid cannot be simply described by the average positions of the atoms plus a small number of distortions. It is then necessary to consider a large number of correlation functions characterizing distortions and organization in many different length scales. In this case, the effects of heterogeneity, organization, and competition between different phases in the diffraction patterns are simply not known.

It may seem surprising that, in spite of the fact that it is widely accepted that some of the most compelling properties of real materials come from departures from perfect periodicity111See for example Ref. Ice1999,  and references therein. , there is a vast amount of literature concerned with describing theoretically how different types of disorder affect the diffuse part of the scattering222See for example the extensive bibliography presented in Ref. Welberry1995, . , and that there is an increasing body of evidenceBianconi1996 ; Saini2001 ; Bianconi2000 ; Villella2001 ; Espinosa2001 ; Espinosa2000 ; Tyson1996 ; Li1995 ; Cox1995 ; Li1994 ; Dmowski1995 ; Vasiliu1999 ; Shimomura1999  that suggest that the traditional interpretative frameworks based on the crystal picture of solids are not enough to understand the properties of complex systems, the signatures of disorder clearly seen in experimental diffraction data are, oftentimes, ignored.

One possible reason for this is that, sometimes, the situation in solids where nanoscale heterogeneity plays an important role can be even more complicated and misleading than the previous description may suggest and it is easier to rely on a well-established description of solids rather than carry on the difficult and expensive program presented above. However, as we will prove in the present work, ignoring apparently small and unimportant features usually present in the diffuse scattering can lead us to develop models and extract conclusions from these models for systems that, simply put, have nothing to do with the real solid under consideration. Moreover, we will also show that, even in some extreme cases, aperiodic distortions affecting one fifth or more of the atoms in the lattice can barely affect the calculated structure factors when compared with their periodic counterparts, making it very easily to miss them by using conventional analysis methods. We will also see that even in some cases where distinct features of disorder are present, we can easily devise different types of distorted configurations that lead to qualitatively similar structure factors, making it very difficult to ascertain the nature of the underlying lattice. In order to develop this program, we will present the results of simulations of the structure factors and radial distribution functions (RDF) in lattices with different kinds of isolated and collective distortions. For simplicity, we have carried on the calculations in two-dimensional lattices. However, we do expect the conclusions drawn in this work to be extensible to the real three-dimensional case and the results of such an analysis will be reported elsewhere.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: In the next Section we will describe the lattices we have considered in this work. In Section III the results of our calculations for the RDF and structure factors, and a discussion of the main results are presented. Finally, Section IV is devoted to stating the conclusions of this work.

## II The distorted lattices

As briefly mentioned in the Introduction, we have considered 2D square lattices to which different kinds of static disorder have been applied in order to simulate various possible lattice distortions. For completeness, we have also considered purely periodic lattices obtained by distorting the square lattice (see below). The size of all the lattices reported in this work is $`40\times 40`$ atoms (1600 atoms). This is a compromise between large enough lattices so the finite size effects are small while, at the same time, keeping the CPU time down to a reasonable amount (hours). Obviously, the finite size of the lattices will give raise to a broadening of the peaks in the calculated structure factors that makes it difficult to extract any conclusion about how these distortions affect the shape of the diffraction peaks. However, such an analysis of the shape of the peaks is outside the scope of this work and, besides, based on comparisons with the results for smaller lattices, this broadening does not modify any of the conclusions reached in this work about the effects of distortions on the diffuse scattering. The lattice parameter used in all the calculations is 3 Å. Let us now briefly review the different kinds of distortions that have been applied to the otherwise perfect square lattice:

* The first case we have considered consists of different configurations of vacancies placed on the square lattice (see Fig. 1). The first and simplest configuration of vacancies consists on randomly removing 20% of the atoms of the lattice in order to test the effect of random, aperiodic elimination. In addition, we have also considered configurations in which the positions of the vacancies are not random, but correlated, forming channels across the lattice and periodic and aperiodic distributions of vacancies defining certain regular geometric shapes. Finally, we have also considered a configuration in which the vacancies define different regular shapes which are randomly placed in the lattice.
* Atoms displaced from their original crystallographic positions (Fig. 2). The configurations considered in this case are similar to the previous ones. The first type of displacements we have considered consists on randomly choosing a 20% of the atoms of the lattice and displacing them by a vector $`(\mathrm{cos}\theta ,\mathrm{sin}\theta )`$, where $`\theta `$ randomly varies among $`32^{}`$, $`148^{}`$, $`212^{}`$, and $`328^{}`$ (see Fig. 2(a)). The second type of displacements we have considered is similar to the channel of vacancies explained above, except for the fact that now, instead of removing the atoms, they are displaced by the same random vector as in the previous displaced configuration (see Fig. 2(b)). We have also considered the case in which a certain number of atoms defining a regular shape (a small cross) are displaced by the same random vector, and this shape is periodically and aperiodically repeated across the lattice (see Figs. 2(c) and 2(d)). Finally, we have also tested the effect of having two phases of different symmetries inside the lattice. To this end, the interatomic distances between the atoms defining the crosses used in the last two configurations have been contracted by a factor $`0.04a`$ in the horizontal direction. These two configurations have not been depicted, at the visual differences with respect to the last two cases are barely noticeable.
* Inclusion of a tetragonal domain. We have considered the effect of contracting a regular domain (a square domain) in the horizontal direction by an amount $`0.04a`$ (see Fig. 3). In order to see what is the minimum size this domain has to be, in order to show up in the $`S(Q)`$, different domain sizes have been considered, ranging from $`4\times 4`$ atoms up to $`40\times 20`$ atoms (half the lattice is contracted). Additionally, we have also considered a lattice in which the positions of groups of atoms defining a geometric motif (a small cross), randomly placed in the lattice, have been tetragonally distorted (see Fig. 3(b)).
* Periodic and aperiodic modulated distortions (Fig. 4). Each of the elementary square cells in the lattice is assigned a position vector of the form $`(i,j)`$, where $`i`$ and $`j`$ are both integer numbers. For example, the (1,0) cell would correspond to the cell defined by the atoms located at (0,0), (0,$`a`$), ($`a`$,0), and ($`a`$,$`a`$). In order to implement this kind of distortion, in the periodic case, the positions of all the atoms on the corners of the cells with odd $`i`$ and $`j`$ have been shifted towards the center of the corresponding cell by a 4% of the undistorted lattice parameter (see Fig. 4(a) for details). The resulting lattice can be seen as another square lattice of lattice parameter $`2a`$ with a basis. In the aperiodic case (Fig. 4(b)), the procedure is similar to the periodic case, but we have allowed the direction of the contraction to randomly vary among the values $`25^{}`$, $`45^{}`$, and $`65^{}`$.
* Periodic and aperiodic interstitial atoms. Using the periodic modulated lattice described in the previous paragraph, an interstitial atom has been placed inside each of the squares defined by those atoms with largest bondlength (see Fig. 5). In the periodic case, the interstitial atom is located in the center of the square. Again, this new lattice can be seen as a square lattice of lattice parameter $`2a`$ with a basis. In the aperiodic case, the interstitial atom is randomly located in a circle of radius $`0.04a`$ centered at the middle point of the square (see Fig. 5(b) for details).
* Periodic and aperiodic channels of defects across the lattice. In this case, the effect of correlated networks of defects has been studied. In the periodic case, all the atoms belonging to a chosen column have been shifted downwards by half the lattice parameter. At the same time, the atoms belonging to this channel have been shifted in the horizontal direction by an amount $`\frac{a}{6}`$ or $`\frac{a}{6}`$, respectively (see Fig. 6(a)). In addition, each seventh atom in the network has been removed. Finally, the distorted network has been periodically repeated across the horizontal direction. In the aperiodic case, channels across the lattice similar to the ones introduced in the case of vacancies and displacements have been considered (see Fig. 6(b)). However, in contrast with the displacements case, the atoms inside this channel have been alternatively displaced horizontally or vertically, in such a way that they define a second tetragonal phase inside the square lattice, whereas in the displacements case, the displacements where applied in a random fashion. Moreover, each seventh atom has been removed.

As stated in the Introduction, our intention is to study how these different types of distortions affect the calculated diffraction patterns. The result of this analysis is presented in the next Section.

## III Results and discussion of the calculated structure factors and radial distribution functions

The static structure factor (SF) $`S(Q)`$ and radial distribution function (RDF) $`g(r)`$ have been calculated for the lattices introduced in the previous Section. To this end, we have used the code CRYGEN2D, developed by P. Villella and coworkers at Los Alamos National Lab Villela2002 . This program takes as input the coordinates of the atoms in a two-dimensional lattice and exactly computes the RDF and $`S(Q)`$. For comparison, the $`S(Q)`$ and $`g(r)`$ of a $`40\times 40`$ atoms square lattice have been also calculated, and used as reference. In order to simulate the effects of finite temperature, we have used a typical Debye-Waller vibrational factor of amplitude 0.05 Å. The $`S(Q)`$ data have been normalized in order to eliminate differences coming from the different number of atoms present in some lattices with respect to the square one. This allows us to compute the difference between any two $`S(Q)`$ data sets, so the differences in the diffuse scattering are more noticeable. The results of the $`S(Q)`$ calculations are presented below in terms of the dimensionless variable $`\left(\frac{Qa}{2\pi }\right)^2=h^2+k^2`$ (with $`h`$ and $`k`$ the Miller indices), which makes it very simple to assign the Bragg peaks. Let us now review how these different kinds of distortions affect the calculated $`g(r)`$ and $`S(Q)`$.

*Effect of random vacancies.-* The results for the RDF and $`S(Q)`$ can be seen in Fig. 7. As one would expect, the only effect of vacancies on the RDF is a reduction in the intensity of the peaks proportional to the concentration of vacancies in the lattice.

The situation is a little more complicated for the calculated structure factors. The fundamental peaks are located at the same positions as for the square lattice and have the same shapes. Their intensities, however, are smaller for the lattices with vacancies than for the square lattice due to the fact that part of the intensity goes now to the diffuse part of the scattering. For the case of 20% atoms randomly removed from the lattice, the main effect is an increment of the background, very similar to the effect of a Debye-Waller factor, except for the fact that this background is essentially constant for all $`Q`$’s, in contrast to the Debye-Waller diffuse scattering, which is larger for larger values of $`Q`$. In the case of the channels of vacancies extending through the lattice, the main effect is an increment of the diffuse scattering around the $`[i\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}](i=1,2,3,\mathrm{})`$ peaks. This enhancement is highly asymmetric, affecting only the high-$`Q`$ part of the peak.

If we now turn our attention to the configurations in which vacancies define geometric shapes, we can see that, in the periodic case, many new peaks appear at incommensurate positions with respect to the spacing of the original square lattice. Obviously, these new peaks are nothing but superlattice peaks associated with the fact that the lattice can still be seen as a square lattice of lattice parameter $`10a`$ with a complicated basis. We will further comment on these superlattice peaks below. In contrast, if these shapes are randomly distributed, the superlattice peaks disappear, and the background acquires an modulated character: there is an enhanced diffuse scattering around the fundamental peaks, and this background is depleted in between. The combination of these two effects give rise to some kind of oscillatory diffuse scattering. This effect is more noticeable at low $`Q`$. We wanted to check if these oscillations were due to the fact that all the defects have the same size and shape and, to this end, we repeat this calculation using different shapes and sizes, but located at the same positions (see Fig. 1(e)). As can be seen from the green curve in the lower panel of Fig. 7(b), this is not the case, and the only difference between these two configurations is a barely noticeable increment of the diffuse scattering around the fundamental peaks at larger $`Q`$, in this last case.

*Effect of aperiodic displacements.-* The results for this case can be seen in Fig. 8. The RDF for the distorted lattices shows the original peaks of the square lattice (the intensity of these peaks is reduced, as expected) plus additional new peaks due to the new pairwise distances introduced by the displaced atoms. The new distances are especially apparent in the RDF for the lattice in which 20% of the atoms are randomly chosen and shifted from their crystallographic positions. For example, if we consider the peak corresponding to the nearest neighbor (NN) distances, we can see that four new peaks corresponding to the four new NN distances introduced by the distortions. The intensity of these new peaks are the same, as each of the four displacement vectors are equally probable. Similar comments apply to further neighbor peaks. The other configurations exhibit exactly the same features as this last one: The same new peaks appear and they are located at the same positions. The main difference is the intensity of the new peaks which, obviously, is higher for those configurations involving a larger number of atoms displaced (320 atoms in the case of the 20% randomly chosen atoms to be compared with 200 in the channel case and 192 for the shifted crosses, respectively). This reduction in the intensity of the peaks is especially noticeable in those configurations in which the displaced atoms define a regular shape, as in this case the only new distances are located at the interface between the displaced and undistorted lattice. When additional tetragonal contractions are applied to these shapes, there are also new distances between the atoms defining the shape itself (for example, the NN distance in the horizontal direction is now 2.88 Å). However, these new distances are masked by the thermal broadening of the peaks associated with the regular part of the lattice.

The situation is more complicated for the calculated $`S(Q)`$. The intensity of the fundamental peaks decreases as part of it goes into additional structure appearing in the diffuse part of the scattering. For the configuration in which 20% of the atoms are randomly chosen and shifted, the background scattering exhibits modulated variations (enhanced background at low $`Q`$, depleted at intermediate values, and enhanced again at high values of $`Q`$), giving the impression of an oscillatory background, clearly different from the effect of purely thermal disorder. For the channel of displaced atoms, the behavior of the diffuse scattering is very similar to that of the channel of vacancies discussed above: The high-$`Q`$ part of the $`[i\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}](i=1,2,3,\mathrm{})`$ reflections is enhanced. For comparison, we have depicted the difference between the $`S(Q)`$ for this configuration and the one for the channel of vacancies (the violet curve in the bottom panel of Fig. 8(b)). As can be seen from that curve, the only difference between the $`S(Q)`$ for these two configurations is the intensity of the fundamental reflections. For other values of $`Q`$ this curve is essentially a flat line.

If we now turn our attention to the configurations where the shifted atoms define geometrical shapes, we can observe from Fig 8(b) that the results for those cases in which the regular shapes are periodically chosen and then randomly shifted (both with and without tetragonal contraction) are very interesting: The resulting $`S(Q)`$ resembles that of a periodic lattice (appearance of superlattice peaks at incommensurate $`[hk]`$ values), even though there does not exists an elementary motif (unit cell) from which the whole lattice can be obtained by periodic repetition. When these shapes are randomly distributed, the resulting diffuse scattering lacks any sharp features and, instead, it exhibits an oscillatory character with enhanced diffuse background around the fundamental reflections and depleted in between. Strikingly, the calculated SFs for both the regular shapes with and without tetragonal contractions are essentially identical, as can be seen from the green and brown curves in the bottom panel of Fig. 8(b), which are essentially flat lines. These observations imply that, even though we can induce the presence of a random or ordered motif of defects, it is difficult to judge whether this motif contains no atoms at all or a phase with a symmetry completely different from the one of the initial lattice. We will further develop this point when stating the conclusions of this work.

*Effect of the inclusion of a tetragonal domain.-* The results of the calculations for this type of distortions can be seen in Fig. 9. In that figure, we have only depicted the results for some representative domain sizes. For the sake of comparison, the $`S(Q)`$ for a $`40\times 40`$ lattice tetragonally contracted in the horizontal direction is also shown. As stated above, we also show in that figure the results RDF and $`S(Q)`$ for the lattice depicted in Fig. 3(b), where randomly placed regular shapes have been horizontally contracted. The RDF for those lattices with a single tetragonal domain nicely interpolates between the one for the square lattice and the one of a purely tetragonal lattice, and peaks associated to the new distances inside the tetragonal domain clearly develop as the domain size increases. It is interesting to note, though, that for practical purposes, below a domain size of $`12\times 12`$ atoms, the new distances are barely noticeable in the RDF. The RDF for the randomly distributed tetragonally contracted shapes is very similar to the one consisting of a single tetragonal domain with the same number of atoms with the only difference of some small and broad peaks occurring at higher distances associated to the distances between the boundaries of the geometrical shapes and the atoms in the square phase.

Regarding the $`S(Q)`$, we can see in Fig. 9(b) that new peaks, typical of the tetragonal symmetry, develop as the domain size is increased. Interestingly, these peaks are only noticeable for large domain size and, even for the $`40\times 20`$ domain, the tetragonal peaks are not fully developed. However, the resulting $`S(Q)`$ for this lattice is fully consistent with the one obtained by adding up the $`S(Q)`$ for a square $`40\times 20`$ lattice plus the one for a $`40\times 20`$ one. Furthermore, the positions of the fundamental reflections are shifted to higher $`Q`$, due to an overall (though small) contraction of the lattice. Even though we have not shown it in that figure, we found that for sizes smaller than $`12\times 12`$ atoms the new peaks are barely noticeable. The $`S(Q)`$ for the lattice with tetragonal shapes randomly distributed is essentially identical to the one of the square lattice, as can be seen in the lower panel of Fig. 9(b).

*Effect of periodic and aperiodic modulated distortions.-* The results of the calculations for this type of distortions can be seen in Fig. 10. The RDF for the modulated lattices (both periodic and aperiodic), are quite distinct from the square lattice one, as new distances are generated in the distorted lattices. As a result of these distortions, some of the peaks (noticeably the ones corresponding to NN, next NN, 6th NN, and 7th NN) are split reflecting these new distances, whereas in other cases (3rd, 4th, and 5th NN) the only effect is an additional (small) broadening superimposed to the thermal one. We can also see that the RDF for the aperiodic lattice is very similar to the periodic one, as we could expect from the fact that the distortions we have implemented average out to zero. The only noticeable difference is an slight additional broadening of the split peaks.

The $`S(Q)`$ for these lattices shows interesting features again. In the periodic case, many new small superlattice peaks at incommensurate $`h`$ and $`k`$ values appear associated with the fact that the modulated lattice is another square lattice of parameter $`2a`$ with a basis. The interesting point, however, is that the $`S(Q)`$ for the aperiodic modulated lattice is almost identical to the periodic one, as can be seen from the curve labeled “Differences” in the lower panel of Fig. 10(b). The only noticeable difference is the appearance of a marginal amount of diffuse scattering close to the fundamental reflections. Moreover, in both the periodic and aperiodic cases, the original peaks are only minimally affected until $`h^2+k^216`$.

*Effect of periodic and aperiodic interstitial atoms.-* The results of the calculations for these types of lattices can be seen in Fig. 11. Regarding the RDF calculation, new distinct peaks appear associated with the new atom in the basis (see Fig. 11(a)), when compared with the calculated RDF for modulated lattice described above . This is especially clear in the periodic case. In the aperiodic case, these same peaks remain, but they are broadened by disorder, as expected.

Regarding the results for the $`S(Q)`$, this quantity exhibits the peaks already described in the modulated lattice case plus new superlattice peaks associated with the sublattice of interstitial atoms. However, in full analogy with the previous case, the $`S(Q)`$ for the aperiodic case is essentially identical to the periodic one, the difference between this two cases being again a slight increment of the diffuse scattering around the fundamental peaks. When compared with the same curve for the modulated lattice the only difference is that the differences in the diffuse scattering around the fundamental reflections slightly increase at higher $`Q`$.

*Effect of networks of tetragonal distortions across the lattice.-* The results of the calculations for these lattices can be seen in Fig. 12. The main effect of these distortions in the RDF is to produce many new peaks associated with the new pair distances inside the tetragonal channels. Interestingly, there are no noticeable differences between the periodic and aperiodic cases. This is not the case, however, for the $`S(Q)`$. The periodic channels give rise to new superlattice diffraction peaks as happened in all the cases where the distortions where periodic. When the periodicity is removed, these superlattice peaks disappear and there is an enhancement of the diffuse scattering localized around the fundamental peaks of the square lattice, even though the RDFs for both lattices were essentially identical. It is interesting to notice that this enhancement of the diffuse scattering is somewhat similar to the one observed for the channel of vacancies and channel of random displacements. However, in this case the enhancement only occurs at the high-$`Q`$ part of the $`[i\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}]`$ reflections, with $`i`$ *an odd integer*. For completeness, we have included the differences between the $`S(Q)`$ for the aperiodic channel of tetragonal distortions (Fig. 6(b)) and the ones for the channel of vacancies (Fig. 1(b)) and the channel of aperiodic displacements (Fig. 2(b)) in the lower panel of Fig. 12(b). Apart from differences in the relative intensities of the fundamental peaks, the main difference occurs, obviously, around the high-$`Q`$ part of the $`[i\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0}]`$ reflections, for the reasons commented above. The rest of the diffuse scattering is essentially the same for the three lattices.

### III.1 A comment on the superlattice peaks

Throughout this work, we have consistently observed that the effect of periodic lattice distortions on the calculated structure factors is the appearance of localized peaks, with very small intensities, at incommensurate values of the Miller indices. We have denoted these peaks as *superlattice peaks* or *superlattice reflections*, extending the common usage of these terms that are usually used for non-stoichiometric compounds with chemical disorderWarren1990 , to the present mono-component lattices. In fact, these satellite peaks appearing in our calculations for periodically distorted lattices are nothing but Bragg peaks and the reason why they appear at incommensurate positions in the previous figures is because of the *naive* (and intentional) way in which the unit cell for those lattices was chosen. To see this, let us consider two representative examples, namely, the periodically modulated lattice (Fig. 4(a)) and the lattice with periodic channels of tetragonal distortions (Fig. 6(a)). For the modulated lattice it is easy to see that the resulting distorted lattice can be described as another square lattice in which the smallest motif that generates the whole lattice is another square unit cell of lattice parameter $`2a`$ with a basis of 4 atoms. For the channel of tetragonal distortions, the elementary motif is another square lattice of lattice parameter $`7a`$ with a basis of 58 atoms. If we now use the correct values for the size of the unit cell we will obtain results as the ones depicted in Fig. 13. As we can see, what seemed to be satellite peaks at incommensurate positions in $`h`$ and $`k`$ are nothing but Bragg reflections occurring at the same positions as the ones of the square lattice. Of course, the relations between the intensities of these peaks are completely different from the ones for the simple square lattice, due to the relative positions of the atoms inside the unit cell. Actually, these geometrical relations lead in some cases to a cancellation of the intensity of some peaks, what is usually called an *extinction* of the peak. This is especially noticeable in these examples for the modulated lattice, in which all the peaks with both $`h`$ and $`k`$ odd are absent, those with mixed $`h`$ and $`k`$ are almost extinct, and the relative intensities of the peaks with both $`h`$ and $`k`$ even are unaffected. The analysis for the lattice with periodic channels of tetragonal distortions is more complicated. To begin with, the original $`40\times 40`$ lattice considered in this work contains only $`5\times 5`$ periodic unit cells333And the lattice is not truly periodic. It is interesting to notice that the $`S(Q)`$ does not reflect this fact. . Thus, the shapes and intensities of the peaks at very low $`Q`$ are extremely affected by the finite size of the lattice and the intensities of these peaks are of the same order of magnitude as the oscillatory tails of the Bragg peaks (which are also associated to the finite size of the lattices), making it very difficult to distinguish among them. For this reason, we repeated the calculation for a bigger lattice containing $`13\times 13`$ unit cells (which amounts to 9802 atoms) and reduced the interatomic distance of the undistorted lattice to 1 Å. In doing so, the Bragg peaks are easily distinguished from the oscillatory tails. The result of this calculation shows again that the satellite peaks of Fig. 12(b) are nothing but Bragg peaks when a truly periodic unit cell is chosen. Furthermore, all the reflections are present in this case. The main effect of the complicated basis is that the intensity ratios of the reflections are completely different from the corresponding ones for the square lattice.

Obviously, we have not said anything new in this subsection, as all these facts have been known for a long timeAshcroft . However, we think it is worthy to stress this point, as it seems that other authors at times forget to mention these elementary facts when analyzing diffraction patterns of lattices with periodic distortions.

## IV Conclusions

This work is concerned with the effects of certain types of static distortions, both periodic and aperiodic, local and collective, in the diffraction patterns of materials. Starting from a 2D square lattice, we have implemented different kinds of distortions to obtain new, periodic or aperiodic, 2D lattices. The radial distribution functions and structure factors for these lattices have been computed. The main result coming from the calculations is that periodic distortions are easily identified in the structure factors as new superlattice peaks or, equivalently, as extinction of certain Bragg reflections or changes in the relative intensities when the correct unit cell is chosen, as is known. When the periodicity of the distortions is lost, there are also some signatures present in the $`S(Q)`$, for example, an enhanced and asymmetric diffuse background around the fundamental peaks of the original lattice or oscillations of this same background. However, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to assess the exact nature of these distortions (i.e. whether they are vacancies or random displacements, for example). This fact is nothing but the realization, for the particular examples presented in this work, of the aforementioned uniqueness problem in the determination of the real structure of a material taking as a starting point the diffraction pattern.

It is important to stress at this point that the experimental situation can be even more misleading than the results presented in this work, as experimental measurements are always subject to additional effects we have not taken into account in our simulations. These include limited $`Q`$ resolution, instrumental broadening, and noise. Instrumental broadening, especially, can very easily mask some of the peak splittings we obtain in our calculations. Regarding the calculated radial distribution functions, in some cases we have seen that they provide more intuitive information than the $`S(Q)`$ for the kinds of distortions considered in this work. This fact strongly supports the idea that PDF measurements can be crucially important in making progress in the problem of the determination of the structure of complex systems. However, this approach is not exempt to limitations. On one hand, it is necessary to use very intense sources in order to be able to measure the diffraction pattern up to very large values of $`Q`$ (~35–45 Å-1 typically). Fortunately, with the availability of very intense synchroton and neutron sources this problem is partially alleviated, and these wave-vectors are experimentally achievable. On the other hand, the main limitation in extracting information from experimentally (Fourier-transformed diffraction data) determined pair distribution functions is the effect of thermal broadening that can very easily mask some of the features associated to local distortions. We have seen some examples of this problem when studying the effects of small domains with tetragonal distortions in the radial distribution function: the new peaks associated with the new, shorter distances of the tetragonal phase are closer to the peaks associated to the pair distances of the square lattice than the width of those peaks, making it very difficult to distinguish them. What is even worse, the radial distribution function is completely oblivious to certain kinds of distortions (as it happened with the vacancies configurations). It is in these situations where X-ray absorption fine structure could play an important role, as this type of probe is sensitive to local distortions and to the different species present in the sample. The main limitation in this case is associated to the fact that the XAFS spectra contain multiple scattering contributions and, thus, the kinematic limit is not applicable to the analysis of the data, making it extremely difficult to extract information about the radial distribution at long distances from the probed atom.

We also want to emphasize that, obviously, we are aware of the fact that the kind of distortions we have studied in this work hardly exist in real materials. They are simple illustrative examples of how easy it is to miss important structural information about local and collective distortions if we blindly trust structural models obtained by only applying conventional diffraction analysis methods. Our intention is to motivate awareness about this potential problem. The emerging picture of complex solids strongly supports the idea that local and nanoscale distortions exist (probably even more complicated ones than the toy models we have studied in this work), there are mechanisms that make them stable, and they play an important role in the properties of these systems. However, as has been shown throughout this work, the signatures of such aperiodic distortions are subtle and misleading interpretations can be reached if special care is not paid to their analysis.

We think that the above paragraphs serve to further stress the point already made in the Introduction: It is necessary to use a combination of experimental methods that probe all the relevant length scales (x-ray and neutron diffraction experiments, XAFS, PDF, etc). At the same time, a combination of structural analysis methods (PDF analysis, reverse Monte Carlo simulations, etc), beyond the standard Rietveld analysis, is necessary in order to reach a consistent picture of the structure of complex solids that can lead us to understand and exploit their properties.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was supported by DOE DP and OBES Division of Chemical Sciences under Contract W-7405


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# Near-Infrared Photometric Variability of Stars Toward the Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud

## 1 Introduction

Near-infrared variability provides a means to identify young stellar populations independent of most current observational selection techniques (e.g. H$`\alpha `$, Li, x-ray, and near-infrared excess surveys), and has been shown to be sensitive to stars both with and without circumstellar accretion disks (Skrutskie et al., 1996). Variability studies, therefore, help provide a more complete census of the stellar population in star forming regions. In the first (Carpenter, Hillenbrand, & Skrutskie 2001, hereafter CHS01) of a series of papers on the near-infrared photometric variability properties of pre-main-sequence objects, we analyzed $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ time-series data of nearly 18,000 stars distributed over a $`0.84^{}\times 6^{}`$ region toward the Orion A molecular cloud using observations conducted with southern 2MASS telescope. The vast majority of the $``$1200 stars with time-variable JHKs photometry identified in that study are young pre-main sequence stars associated with the Orion molecular cloud. The large sample of variables was used to investigate the characteristics and origins of near-infrared variability in young stars.

A diversity of photometric behavior was observed during the $``$ 30-day time period encompassed by the Orion observations, including cyclic fluctuations, eclipses, aperiodic short-term fluctuations, slow drifts in brightness over the full length of the observing period, colorless variability, stars that become redder as they fade, and stars that become bluer as they fade. Rotational modulation by cool spots alone can explain the observed variability characteristics in $``$ 56-77% of the stars, while the properties of the photometric fluctuations are more consistent with hot spots or extinction changes in at least 23% of the stars, and with variations in the mass accretion rate or inner radius changes in the disk in $``$ 1% of the stars.

One limitation of the Orion survey is that at the distance of the Orion molecular cloud, the flux-limited observations were most sensitive to variability in stars more massive than 1 M. Observations of more proximate regions can use variability as a probe of lower mass stars and substellar objects and establish if the variability characteristics vary as a function of mass. Accordingly, we have conducted a near-infrared monitoring campaign of the Chamaeleon I star forming region. At a distance of 160 pc (Whittet et al., 1997), Chamaeleon I is three times closer than the Orion molecular cloud, and contains a moderately large sample of young pre-main sequence stars ($``$ 120) that have already been identified (see Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder 1996 and references therein). Using the 2MASS south telescope, we observed a $`0.72^{}\times 6^{}`$ region centered on the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud on 15 nights over a 4 month time period. These observations monitored over 34,000 stars with sensitivity to detect variability in young brown dwarfs with masses as low as $``$ 0.05 M.

The observations and data reduction procedures for this data set are described in Section 2. In Section 3, we identify the variable stars from the time series photometry, present light curves for all of the variable stars, and examine the spatial distribution and near-infrared photometric characteristics of the variable population. In Section 4, we identify candidate members of Chamaeleon I based on near-infrared variability and also near-infrared excesses inferred from the time-averaged photometry. Our conclusions are summarized in Section 5. A list of near-infrared photometry of known and candidate members of Chamaeleon I is provided in the Appendix.

## 2 Data

### 2.1 Observations and Data Processing

The observing and data reduction procedures for the Chamaeleon I data closely follow that used in the Orion variability study. This section summarizes aspects of the data relevant specifically to the Chamaeleon I data. A more complete description of the data processing procedures can be found in CHS01 and Cutri et al. (2000).

The $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ observations of Chamaeleon I were obtained with the 2MASS 1.3 meter telescope at Cerro Tololo, Chile near the completion of the southern survey operations when auxiliary projects were scheduled in otherwise idle telescope time. All data were collected in standard 2MASS observing mode by scanning the telescope in declination to cover tiles of size ($`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha \times \mathrm{\Delta }\delta `$) $``$ ($`8.5^{}\times 6^{}`$) in the three bands simultaneously. The nominal region surveyed for this project consists of eight contiguous tiles in right ascension as listed in Table 1, with each tile centered on declination $`77`$°. The total sky coverage is $``$$`0.72^{}\times 6^{}`$. Observations were obtained on 15 separate nights, 13 of these in April and May, 2000, and 2 in January 2000 when Chamaeleon I was observed as part of the normal 2MASS survey operations covering the entire sky. Complete coverage of all 8 tiles was obtained on 9 separate nights, while scheduling constraints limited observations to a subset of the eight tiles on the other 6 nights.

Adjacent tiles overlap by at least 40″ in the 2MASS observing procedure to ensure complete coverage of the sky as well as a check on the photometric repeatability of the observations. In practice, since the telescope is stepped slightly in right ascension while scanning a tile in declination, the amount of right ascension overlap changes with declination. For low declination regions such as Chamaeleon I, there is near complete overlap at the southernmost declinations within a tile in order to maintain the minimum overlap in the north. Thus for a large fraction of the sources there is more than one measurement per night. Of the sources meeting the photometric completeness limits described in the following section, 53% have 12-14 photometric measurements, 38% of have 23-25 measurements, and the rest mainly have intermediate number of measurements due to photometric incompleteness and nights with partial coverages.

The data were reduced using a development version of the 2MASS data processing pipeline at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) that also generated the data products for the 2MASS first and second incremental release catalogs. The data discussed in this paper though were not part of these incremental releases and will ultimately be replaced by the results of the final 2MASS processing. The 2MASS Explanatory Supplement (Cutri et al., 2000) contains complete details of the IPAC data reduction procedures. As with the Orion data, the photometric zero point was adjusted by us for each tile using bright, isolated stars as secondary standards (see CHS01 for full description of the methods). On a few scans, the photometric offsets derived from the secondary standards deviated systematically from the mean offset by up to 0.1-0.2 magnitudes over a $`\mathrm{\Delta }\delta `$ $``$ 0.5° region of the 6$`\mathrm{°}`$ long tile. These photometric deviations are presumably caused by clouds passing overhead. For the affected region within a scan, the photometric offsets as a function of declination were computed by averaging the offsets for every 10-15 secondary standards. Photometric offsets were derived in this manner for portions of 13 scans out of a total of 108 scans observed for this project, and affected only $``$ 1% of the total scan area.

### 2.2 Point Source List

As a first step in generating the point source list, we established the photometric completeness limit of the observations. Using data from the 9 nights on which all eight tiles were observed (see Table 1), we empirically determined the magnitude limit at which a star is expected to be detected on at least 8 of the 9 nights in the absence of source confusion. The lack of a detection on the one night can be attributed typically to random noise that puts the star below the sensitivity limit of the observations. The completeness limit as defined here then is the magnitude at which there is a 89% chance that the star was detected on an appropriate apparition. This magnitude limit occurs at approximately $`J`$=16.0, $`H`$=15.2, and $`K_s`$=14.8 for these data, corresponding to a signal-to-noise ratio of $``$ 7 as discussed below.

Our initial point source list, generated from the 9 nights in which all tiles were observed, contained 34,539 sources each having an average magnitude brighter than or equal to the photometric completeness limit in at least one band. Of these, $``$ 96% have no artifact or confusion flags from the processing pipeline in any of the observations. After removing those sources flagged as persistence or filter glints, potential lingering artifacts were identified as objects that had unusually blue colors for stars, were detected less than 8 times, or had flags indicating contaminated or confused photometry from a nearby star. Many of these 1266 sources were visually inspected in the images, and sources deemed as artifacts were then removed from the point source list. Criteria were established from this exercise to identify and remove likely artifacts for those sources not examined individually. Of the 34,539 stars meeting the magnitude completeness criteria, only 185 were deemed artifacts. The final source list for our variability analysis therefore contains 34,354 stars brighter than the defined completeness limits ($`J`$=16.0, $`H`$=15.2, $`K_s`$=14.8) in at least one band. Compared to the Orion observations (CHS01), Chamaeleon I contains nearly twice the number of sources (34,354 vs. 18,552) since it is both closer to the galactic center ($`l=297`$° vs. 209°) and the galactic plane ($`b=16`$° vs. $`19`$°). However, the number of sources removed as artifacts is 4 times lower (185 vs. 744) since Chamaeleon I does not have the combination of high stellar density and bright nebulosity that makes photometry and source identification difficult in Orion.

To estimate the signal to noise of the photometry, Figure 1 shows the observed photometric RMS in the time series for each star as a function of magnitude. As discussed in CHS01, suspect photometric measurements for stars that are extended at the 2MASS resolution or have a high reduced chi-squared from a single PSF measurement were excluded when computing the RMS. Figure 1 shows a correlation with magnitude as expected if the observed RMS in the time series is due for the bulk of the stars to photometric noise and not due to intrinsic variability. The observed RMS values range from a minimum of $``$ 0.020 mag for the bright stars to $`\mathrm{¡}\mathrm{}`$ 0.15 mag for stars near the completeness limit. The observed RMS floor of $``$ 0.020 mag for the brighter stars is interpreted as the minimum photometric repeatability for these data, and consequently, a minimum photometric uncertainty of 0.020 mag has been imposed on all of the photometric measurements. Based upon the estimated photometric uncertainties produced by the IPAC data reduction pipeline, we find that 99%, 90%, 80% of the stars brighter than the respective completeness limits at $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ have a signal to noise ratio per measurement $``$ 10, and 99% have a signal to noise ratio $``$ 7.

## 3 Variable Stars in the Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud

### 3.1 Identification

Operationally, we define as a variable any star that exhibits larger photometric variations over the course of a time series than expected based upon the photometric uncertainties. Following CHS01, we used the Stetson statistic (Stetson, 1996), which correlates the photometric fluctuations observed in $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ bands, as our primary means to identify candidate variable stars. As a secondary indicator, we also identified stars that have large reduced chi-squared in the time series data but otherwise small Stetson index. The light curves and images for each candidate variable star were visually examined; 17 stars were removed and 12 stars that had a high reduced chi-squared but otherwise low Stetson index were added. The final list contains 95 variable stars.

Figure 2 shows the Stetson statistic ($`S`$) as a function of the $`H`$-band magnitude. For random noise, the Stetson variability index should be scattered around zero, and have higher, positive, values for stars with correlated variability. As in the Orion analysis, the Stetson variability index for the Chamaeleon I objects has a positive value on average for brighter stars. The origin of this offset is unclear, but is suggestive of a weak correlation between the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ photometry, possibly due to the fact that the three bands are observed simultaneously at each point in the time series. The minimum value of the Stetson variability index which likely represents real photometric variability, as opposed to random noise, was estimated by plotting the Stetson index versus the observed $`\chi _\nu ^2`$, and also from visual examination of the light curves as a function of the Stetson index. Variable stars were defined based on this analysis as objects having Stetson index $`S1.00`$. This threshold is larger than the value used for the Orion observations ($`S=0.55`$) since the Orion data contained more photometric observations and consequently exhibited smaller scatter in the Stetson index.

Table 3 summarizes the photometric properties of the 95 variable stars identified from our data. Included in the table are an ID number, a common name for previously identified variable stars, the equatorial J2000 coordinates, the average $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ magnitudes, the observed photometric RMS, the number of high quality photometric measurements used to assess the variability, and the Stetson variability index.

### 3.2 Light Curves

To illustrate the data obtained for this study, Figure 3 presents time-series photometry for the variable star 11344 (also known as T 29 and Sz 22). This figure shows the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K`$ light curves, the $`K_s`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-magnitude diagram, and the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-color diagram. The electronic version of this article contains figures similar to Figure 3 for all 95 variable stars, but which also include the $`JH`$ and $`HK_s`$ light curves, the $`J`$ vs. $`JH`$ color-magnitude diagram, postage stamps of the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ images, and a tabular summary of the photometric data. Further, .gif images of these figures, links to tabular data, and cross references to existing optical and near-infrared catalogs are also currently available at the web site http://www.astro.caltech.edu/$``$jmc/variables/cham1.

As with the Orion observations, the variable stars in the Chamaeleon I dataset show a diversity of behavior including: gradual increases or decreases in the stellar brightness over the course of the time series observations, decreases in the brightness on discrete days that may indicate an eclipsing system, colorless fluctuations, and instances where the colors become redder as the star fades. (Periodic variables were also identified in the Orion study but a similar time-series analysis was not performed on the Chamaeleon I data due to the more limited, coarser time sampling.)

Most of the Chamaeleon I variables do not exhibit color variations with the brightness fluctuations. However, 14 of the variables exhibit observed dispersions in $`JH`$ and $`HK_s`$ colors more than 1.5 times larger than expected based on photometric noise. Figure 3 shows one example of color variability, which may be caused by either extinction variations or hot spots on the stellar surface (CHS01). After considering that up to half of the variable stars in Chamaeleon I may be field stars (see Sections 3.3 and 3.4), we conclude that $``$ 15-30% of the variables associated with Chamaeleon I show color variability. Similarly, 23% of the Orion variables show color variations of this type. No stars in Chamaeleon I become bluer as they dim, which is consistent with the results in Orion where only 1% of the variables exhibited these characteristics.

### 3.3 Spatial Distribution of the Variable Stars

The spatial distribution of variable stars identified in this study is presented in Figure 4. Also shown for comparison are (1) all sources in our point-source list with $`J`$ 16.0, (2) sources with a near-infrared excess detectable in the $`JH`$ vs $`HK_s`$ color-color diagram (see Section 4.2), (3) 196 known or candidate members of the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud identified prior to this study (see Appendix), (4) x-ray sources selected from the ROSAT all-sky survey (Alcalá et al., 1995), and (5) an image of the average $`HK_s`$ color in the point source list binned to a resolution of 5. The overall density of stars increases from the south to the north, which reflects the decreasing distance (galactic latitude from $`18`$° to $`13`$°) to the galactic plane. Obscuration from dust in the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud is clearly manifested in a sharp decrease in the $`J`$-band star counts near the center of the image and a corresponding increase in the average $`HK_s`$ color.

Variable stars are found over the entire 6° long region with a clear enhancement toward 2 regions in the molecular cloud at declinations of $``$$`76.5`$° and $``$$`77.5`$°. The declination band between $`76.2`$° and $`77.8`$° that encompasses these two regions contains 63% (60/95) of the total number of identified variable stars despite containing only 27% of the survey area. The fact that the variable star surface density is highest toward the molecular cloud where the overall stellar density is lowest suggests direct affiliation of the variable stars with the molecular cloud and hence a young stellar population. Indeed, 45 of the 95 variable stars have been previously identified as likely members of the Chamaeleon I T Tauri association. Of the remaining 50 objects, 15 are projected against the molecular cloud and are discussed as possible Chamaeleon I members in Section 4, and 35 are distributed over a larger region outside the molecular cloud boundaries. This widespread variable population may represent either variable field stars, intermediate age ($`>`$ 10 Myr) pre-main-sequence stars that have formed in the vicinity of the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud, or young ($`<`$ 10 Myr) pre-main-sequence stars formed in Chamaeleon I that have drifted from the molecular cloud. The data obtained here do not enable us to make a definitive interpretation of these variable stars, although as discussed in the following section, the colors and magnitudes of these stars suggest they are not likely to be a young stellar population related to the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud.

### 3.4 Colors and Magnitudes of the Variable Stars

The nature of the variable stars can be clarified by analyzing their colors and magnitudes. At the sensitivity of the 2MASS observations, the field star population is dominated by main sequence stars of spectral type late-F to early-K (see, e.g., Wainscoat et al. 1992). In contrast, most of the known members of Chamaeleon I have K and M spectral types (Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder, 1996), and should have redder intrinsic colors than the field stars. Moreover, given the proximity and youth of the Chamaeleon I association, pre-main-sequence stars in Chamaeleon I will have brighter apparent magnitudes than the typical field star of the same spectral type.

To examine the colors and magnitudes for the stars detected in our observations, Figure 5 shows the $`K_s`$ vs $`HK_s`$ diagram for the variable star population (circles) compared to all sources detected in the survey (represented in Hess format by the color scale). The filled circles indicate the subset of variable stars that have been previously identified as members or candidate members of Chamaeleon I (see Appendix). The black solid line in Figure 5 shows the 2 Myr pre-main-sequence isochrone from D’Antona & Mazzitelli (1997,98), corresponding to the mean age of the cluster (Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder, 1996), and the dashed line shows the interstellar reddening vector. The variables can be coarsely grouped into two populations: (1) bright ($`K_s`$ $`\mathrm{¡}\mathrm{}`$ 12) and red ($`HK_s`$ $`\mathrm{¿}\mathrm{}`$ 0.3) stars, and (2) relatively faint and blue stars. Most of the bright red variables are known members of Chamaeleon I with colors and magnitudes consistent with a young, reddened, pre-main-sequence population. Further, as shown in Figure 6, many of these red variables exhibit a near-infrared excess in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-color diagram consistent with the presence of an optically thick circumstellar accretion disk (Lada & Adams, 1992; Meyer, Calvet, & Hillenbrand, 1997).

To further investigate the distinction between “red” and “blue” variable stars, Figure 7 shows the spatial distribution of variables separated by $`HK_s`$ color, where the filled symbols again represent previously known Chamaeleon I members. Not surprisingly most of the red variable stars are found toward the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud and suggest that the red colors can be attributed to a combination of extinction, near-infrared excess emission, and late spectral types for many of the association members. Four stars with red colors are found outside the boundaries of the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud. One of these variable stars is XZ Cha, thought to be a Mira star. A second is a suggested optical counterpart to a ROSAT x-ray source RX J1108.8-7919b, and is likely a pre-main-sequence star (Alcalá et al., 1995). A third red variable is PU Car111Alcalá et al. (1995) identified PU Car as RX J1108.8-7519b. However, based on the finding charts from Hoffmeister (1963), PU Car is located 2.5 south of this x-ray source., a variable star of unknown type. The fourth red variable located off of the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud is anonymous.

In contrast to the red variable stars, the blue variables are found scattered over the entire 6° declination range of the survey. Figure 5 shows that in general these stars are too blue to be consistent with the 2 Myr old Chamaeleon I pre-main-sequence population. The blue variable stars may represent either field stars unrelated to Chamaeleon I, or older pre-main-sequence stars that have formed in Chamaeleon I or its vicinity, but have since dispersed around the cloud. For example, assuming a 1 km s-1 velocity dispersion, a 10 Myr pre-main-sequence population at the distance of Chamaeleon I will disperse over a 3° radius region if the binding energy from the molecular cloud is negligible. We find near-infrared variables over at least 6° centered on Chamaeleon I.

To investigate whether the faint, blue variable stars could plausibly represent an older generation of stars in the vicinity of the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud, the green dotted curve in Figure 5 shows the 10 Myr pre-main-sequence isochrone. As stars and brown dwarfs evolve toward the main-sequence, they become blue and fainter, but even compared to the 10 Myr old isochrone, most of faint variable stars have colors that are too blue. While it is unlikely that the widely distribution variables are comprised of low mass stars $`<`$ 10 Myr old, their colors and magnitudes are consistent with an older population ($`>`$ 10 Myr) of low mass pre-main-sequence stars ($`<1M_{}`$) located beyond the Chamaeleon I cloud. Such a population could have formed at the edge of an H I spur associated with Upper Sco OB association, similar to the eta Cha and TW Hya associations (Mamajek & Feigelson, 2001).

Alternatively, the blue variables have properties roughly expected from a main-sequence field star population in that they coincide with the peak density of field stars shown in Figure 5, exhibit a north-south gradient in their spatial distribution (see Figs. 5 and 7), and have colors consistent with G- and K-dwarfs (see Fig. 6). The main difficulty with this interpretation is in understanding the origin of the near-infrared variability if these are indeed old field stars. Follow-up spectroscopic observations to search for lithium in these sources will help distinguish if the widespread variable stars are field objects or a $`>`$ 10 Myr pre-main-sequence population.

## 4 Candidate Members of the Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud

As summarized in the Appendix, the current census of the stellar population in the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud has been established based on optical variability studies, optical spectroscopy, x-rays, and infrared surveys. The monitoring observations obtained here complement and expand these previous studies, and allow candidate members to be identified based on variability in the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ time-series data and from near-infrared excesses in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-color diagram. In this section, we use our infrared variability data to identify new candidate members of the Chamaeleon I association and comment on the completeness of the current stellar/substellar membership.

### 4.1 Variables

Of the 95 variable stars identified in the survey, 45 are associated with stars that have been suggested previously as members of Chamaeleon I. As discussed in Section 3.4, most of the remaining 50 variable stars are likely field stars or an intermediate age ($`\mathrm{¿}\mathrm{}`$ 10 Myr) pre-main-sequence population based on their colors, magnitudes, and spatial distribution. However, 5 variable stars have near-infrared colors ($`HK_s>0.3`$) and coordinates ($`77.8^{}<\delta <76.2^{}`$) generally consistent with being cluster members (see Fig. 7). Of these 5 stars, one is YY Cha with a magnitude of $`K_s=4.891`$, and is most likely a Mira variable (Whittet, Prusti, & Wesselius, 1991). The remaining four stars have not been previously identified as variable stars; their ID numbers, coordinates, and photometry are summarized in Table 4. The $`K_s`$-band magnitudes range of these 4 variables range from 10.8 to 13.5, and two objects (9484 and 15991) have $`K_s`$ magnitudes and $`HK_s`$ colors that imply masses below the hydrogen burning limit if they are 2 Myr old objects at the distance of Chamaeleon I. As described in the next section, two of these variable stars (1715 and 15991) also exhibit an apparent near-infrared excess in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-color diagram, which provides additional evidence that they are likely members of the Chamaeleon I association.

### 4.2 Near-infrared Excess

Previous studies have identified candidate members of Chamaeleon I based on the presence of a near-infrared excess in a color-color diagram (Cambrésy et al., 1998; Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani, 1999; Gómez & Kenyon, 2001). The angular extent of our survey and the precision that results from averaging all of the photometric measurements (typically between 12 and 25 independent observations per band per star) has produced an extensive, high signal-to-noise database of near-infrared photometry with which to conduct a more accurate census of stars with near-infrared excesses than previously possible. For the purpose of this exercise, a star was defined to have a near-infrared excess if the average colors of all photometric measurements are such that the star is located to the right of the rightmost reddening vector shown in Figure 6. This approach is sensitive to stars with large enough infrared excesses to shift the observed colors outside the reddening vector drawn from the extrema of the color range at early O and late M spectral types. Stars with smaller infrared excess cannot be distinguished from reddened field stars in this diagram. The main-sequence locus and reddening vector were adopted from Bessell & Brett (1988) and Cohen et al. (1981) respectively, and transformed into the 2MASS photometric system using the relations in Carpenter (2001). The main-sequence locus from Bessell & Brett (1988) extends to M6 spectral types. Therefore, stars located to the right of the reddening vector may signify an apparent infrared excess due to photometric noise, a true infrared excess presumably due to an optically thick inner circumstellar disk, or a spectral type later than M6 but earlier than $``$ L9 (Kirkpatrick et al., 2000; Leggett et al., 2002), as the T-dwarfs have bluer infrared colors.

Figure 8 shows $`JH`$ vs. $`HK`$ color-color diagrams in 4 different $`K_s`$-band magnitude intervals for sources with at least 10 $`JH`$ and $`HK_s`$ measurements. The later criteria was arbitrarily imposed to ensure high signal-to-noise photometry. Sources brighter than $`K_s`$=14 and with near-infrared excess have $`JH`$ colors that range between $``$ 1 and 3 mag. Spatially these bright sources are located toward the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud (see Fig. 4). These properties are consistent with the notion that the bright objects with infrared excesses are pre-main-sequence stars surrounded by optically thick accretion disks embedded within the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud.

The $`K_s`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-magnitude diagram for the 208 sources with an apparent near-infrared excess is shown in Figure 9, where filled symbols denote stars with a near-infrared excess that also show infrared variability, and open symbols indicate non-variable sources with an excess. Figure 9 shows that all but one source with a near-infrared excess and brighter than $`K_s`$=11.5 (approximately the hydrogen burning limit for the distance and age of Chamaeleon I with no extinction) is also variable in the near-infrared. The one star (ID number 1959) with an apparent infrared excess and is not variable has blue infrared colors ($`JH`$,$`HK_s`$ = 0.104, 0.120) and possesses a small near-infrared excess. The $`HK_s`$ color for this star is too blue to be consistent with membership in the Chamaeleon I association assuming an age of 2 Myr. We suspect therefore that this star most likely has an apparent near-infrared excess due to photometric noise, and we do not list this star as a candidate member of Chamaeleon I.

Figures 8 and 9 also show a population of 155 sources fainter than $`K_s=14`$ that, if stellar, exhibit a near-infrared excess. From visual inspection of the images, a few of these sources have suspect photometry due to a nearby bright star or a close companion. However, for most of the objects, there is no a priori reason to question the photometry. The apparent excesses cannot be attributed to random photometric noise since one would expect that these objects would be present with colors ranging from $`JH`$ = 0.3 to 0.9 where the stellar density is highest in the color-color plot. Instead, most of the faint objects with excesses are found in a narrow range of colors between $`JH`$ = 0.8 and 1.0. Spatially these objects are found over the full 6$`\mathrm{°}`$ declination range of the survey. While we cannot exclude the possibility that these objects are very low mass objects dispersed from Chamaeleon I, such a scenario would seem unlikely since it would require disparate spatial distributions between the substellar and the stellar populations, and would imply that the Chamaeleon I IMF is heavily weighted toward brown dwarf objects in contrast to the IMF in other nearby star forming regions (see, e.g., Luhman et al. 2000). The faint infrared excess objects cannot be field brown dwarfs since their surface density of $``$ 15 deg-2 between $`K_s=`$ 14 and 14.5 is $``$ 300 times larger than the surface density of L-dwarfs down to $`K_s=14.5`$ (Kirkpatrick et al., 1999).

The remaining possibility then is that the faint sources with near-infrared excesses are galaxies, where the recessional velocities shift the galaxy colors to the right of the reddening vector in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram. The near-infrared colors observed in Figure 8 can be accounted for by a population of galaxies at redshifts between $``$ 0.1 and 0.25 (Mannucci et al., 2001). Photometric and spectroscopic surveys have in fact shown that galaxies with magnitudes of $`K`$=14-15 have a mean redshift of 0.18 (Songaila et al., 1994) and a surface density of $``$ 100 deg-2 (Väisänen et al., 2000). By comparison, the observed surface density of sources in Chamaeleon I with near-infrared excesses and fainter than $`K_s`$=14 is $``$ 35 deg-2. The lower surface density of faint near-infrared excess sources compared to the expected galaxy population may be attributed to the high extinction from the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud and that not all of the galaxies will have high enough redshift to produce the red near-infrared colors. We therefore conclude that the sources with a near-infrared excess and fainter than $`K_s`$=14 consist predominantly of galaxies with redshifts of $``$ 0.2.

Given the apparent predominance of galaxies among the near-infrared excess objects at faint magnitudes, we only considered infrared excess sources brighter than $`K_s=`$13.5 as possible members of Chamaeleon I. The spatial distribution of these 45 objects is shown in the third panel of Figure 4. All but one is concentrated toward the cloud. The one exception, star 11564 in our source list (J2000 equatorial coordinates of $`\alpha ,\delta `$ = 11:08:03.56,$``$79:22:34.65), has average colors of $`JH`$=0.976 and $`HK_s`$=1.218. The infrared excess appears in each of the 24 individual photometric measurements with a PSF chi-square less than 2 in all observations. Therefore, the near-infrared excess cannot be merely due to photometric noise or a poor PSF fit. This object may either be an isolated young star with near-infrared excess, or a bright, red galaxy. We interpret the remainder of the near-infrared excess sources brighter than $`K_s`$=13.5 as young stellar objects whose excesses can be accounted for by an optically thick inner circumstellar disk for the brighter objects, and/or a spectral type later than $``$ M6 for the fainter objects. Table 4 lists the seven new near-infrared candidates members identified from our observations that are located in the vicinity of the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud. (The eight star with an infrared excess in Table 4 is fainter than our imposed magnitude limit, but is included in the table as a candidate members because it is a variable.)

We note that we did not confirm many of the near-infrared excess stars identified in previous studies. Cambrésy et al. (1998) selected 54 candidate members in Chamaeleon I based on near-infrared excess in the $`IJ`$ vs. $`JK`$ diagram or redder colors than expected from a Chamaeleon I extinction map. Of these 54 stars, 42 are in our database with three-band photometry, and only 6 show an infrared excess in our data. One of these sources is identified in Table 4, and three others (ID numbers 32, 41, and 49 in Table 2 of Cambresy et al. 1998) are indicated as candidate members in the Appendix since they have other characteristics that suggest they may be pre-main-sequence stars. The remaining two sources (ID numbers 329 and 926 in our study, and ID 10 and 11 respectively in Cambresy et al. 1998) show infrared excess in our data as well, but they were detected on only 5-6 $`J`$-band images due to the faintness of the object and were not included in the near-infrared excess analysis. Similarly, Gómez & Kenyon (2001) list 56 infrared excess candidates (identified from the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram) brighter than $`K_s`$=14, of which 49 are three band detections in our observations. Only 7 of these sources show an infrared excess. One of these objects is indicated in Table 4, four others (ID numbers 13, 29, 30, and 31 in Gomez & Kenyon 2001) are listed in the Appendix as members based on other studies, and 2 (ID numbers 10 and 40 in Gomez & Kenyon 2001) are fainter than $`K_s=`$14 in our study and did not meet our magnitude criterion. (As shown in CHS01, some stars do show a transient near-infrared excess. However, it is unlikely that this account can account for the majority of the Gomez & Kenyon sources since an equally large number of new near-infrared excesses should have been identified in our observations, which is not observed.) Finally, Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani (1999) list 19 sources with infrared excesses, of which 12 are in our database. The remaining 7 sources are fainter than our sensitivity limits. Of these 12 sources, 7 show an infrared excess. All of the infrared excess candidates from Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani (1999) are listed in the Appendix.

### 4.3 Discussion

The area covered by our observations encompasses 170 known or candidate Chamaeleon I members identified prior to this study, of which 159 have been detected in the near-infrared with our data. As discussed in CHS01, the monitoring observations discussed here are most sensitive to detecting variables brighter than $`K_s`$ $``$ 12. Of the 129 Chamaeleon I members brighter than this limit, 43, or 33%, have been detected as variable. The variables include stars with and without near-infrared excesses as traced in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram, although the variability observations are biased toward detecting stars with excesses. That is, of the Chamaeleon I members brighter than $`K_s`$=12, 23% (30/129) have a near-infrared excess, but 28/43 (65%) of the variables have an excess. Thus the proportion of bright stars that have a near-infrared excess is higher among the variable compared to the Chamaeleon I members at a $``$ 5$`\sigma `$ confidence level. Similarly, in Orion, 19%$`\pm `$1% of the stars brighter than $`K_s`$=12 exhibit a near-infrared excess, compared to 28%$`\pm `$2% of the variables brighter than this limit. While the Orion variables are also slightly biased toward stars with infrared excesses (at the $``$ 4.5$`\sigma `$ confidence level), the bias is not as strong in that the overall percentage of variables with an infrared excess is lower in Orion by a factor of 2.3$`\pm `$0.3.

The fact that nearly all Chamaeleon I members with a near-infrared excess and brighter than $`K_s`$=12 are also variable suggests that the variability may be related to the presence of an inner accretion disk. Further evidence for this conjecture comes from the type of variability exhibited by stars with infrared excesses. Of the 14 stars in Chamaeleon I that show measurable color variability where the stellar color becomes redder as the star fades (see Section 3.2), 12 have a near-infrared excess. These near-infrared color variations cannot be readily accounted for by cool spots on the stellar surface (Skrutskie et al. 1996; CHS01). They can however, be explained by extinction variations (perhaps from a warped circumstellar disk), or hot spots on the stellar surface produced by accretion from the disk onto the star. However, hot spots can only produce colors variations of up to $``$ 0.1 mag in the near-infrared given typical hot spot parameters modeled in T Tauri stars, and extinction variations may be the preferred explanation for the large amplitude variables (see CHS01). More extensive observations and modeling of these color variations may provide a unique window into the properties of the inner circumstellar disk.

Two of the Chamaeleon I variables (ID numbers 18416 and 21473) that show color variations have masses near the hydrogen burning limit as inferred from the $`K_s`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram. This suggests that the variability mechanisms discussed in context of the Orion observations for stars more massive than 1 M may extend to lower mass objects. For fainter sources between $`K_s`$ magnitudes of 12.0 to 13.5, and presumably lower mass, only 8% (1/13) of the near-infrared excess objects also show variability. The lack of variability in these sources does not necessarily imply a change in the infrared excess-variability relation for substellar objects however. Not only are these observations less sensitive to variability for sources fainter than $`K_s`$=12, but the apparent infrared excess may be due to a spectral type later than M6 and not to a circumstellar disk.

Finally, we briefly discuss the implication of these observations for the current census of the stellar and substellar population in Chamaeleon I. The region we surveyed contains 129 known or candidate Chamaeleon I members brighter than $`K_s`$=12. Only 2 new candidate members brighter than $`K_s=12`$ have been identified in this study from either variability or a near-infrared excess. Since nearly all bright objects with a near-infrared excess are also variable, these observations suggest that the current census of Chamaeleon I sources is nearly complete for objects brighter than $`K_s`$=12 and with an infrared excess in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram. Comerón, Neuhäuser, & Kaas (2000) recently identified 13 low mass stars and brown dwarfs in Chamaeleon I from an H$`\alpha `$ prism survey. Nine of these sources have magnitudes of $`10.6<K_s<12`$, but none were detected as variable, and only one was identified as distinctive in this dataset because of an apparent infrared excess. The other 4 sources in Comerón, Neuhäuser, & Kaas (2000) are fainter than $`K_s`$=12, and interestingly, 3 were identified here as having a near-infrared excess, where the excess for these objects may be due to a late spectral type. While the statistics are small, the comparison with Comerón, Neuhäuser, & Kaas (2000) suggests that the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram is fairly efficient at identifying the substellar objects. The fact that only 8 new candidate members were identified with magnitudes of $`12<K_s<13.5`$ suggests brown dwarfs will not substantially expand the current population census of Chamaeleon I.

## 5 Summary

We have conducted a $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ variability study of stars in a $`0.72^{}\times 6^{}`$ region centered on the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud and T-association. Observations were obtained on 2 nights in January 2000 and 13 nights in April and May 2000 using the 2MASS South telescope. Compared to our variability study of the Orion A molecular cloud (CHS01), which was sensitive to variable stars more massive than $``$ 1 M, observations of the closer Chamaeleon I star forming region permit variability to be detected in lower mass stars and brown dwarfs down to $``$ 0.05 M.

Of the 34,539 sources meeting the photometric completeness criteria, 95 have been identified as variable from either a large Stetson (1996) variability index or a large reduced chi-square in the time series data. The variables can be coarsely grouped into a population of bright ($`K_s<12`$), red ($`HK_s>0.3`$) stars and a population of faint ($`K_s<13`$), blue ($`HK_s<0.3`$) stars. Most of the “red” variables are known members of the Chamaeleon I association, and as expected have near-infrared colors and magnitudes consistent with a young, pre-main-sequence population. The “blue” variables are distributed over the full 6° of the survey area. The colors and magnitudes of the blue variables are inconsistent with a pre-main-sequence population as old as 10 Myr at the distance of Chamaeleon I, but can be explained as a population of older pre-main-sequence stars unrelated to Chamaeleon I or variable field stars.

The time-series data were used to identify new candidate members of the Chamaeleon I association that show photometric variability and/or a near-infrared excess characteristics of an optically thick circumstellar disk. Of the 95 variables identified in this study, 45 were known prior to this study as members or candidate members of Chamaeleon I. Among the remaining 50 variables, we have identified 4 new sources that have colors and coordinates consistent with low mass, pre-main-sequence members of the Chamaeleon I association. A total of 208 sources brighter than $`K_s`$=14.8 were identified as having a near-infrared excess in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ color-color diagram. The fainter sources with near-infrared excesses ($`K_s<14`$) are randomly distributed over the 6° survey region. Based on their spatial distribution, location in the color-color diagram, and surface density, we suggest that these objects are most likely galaxies with redshifts of $`z`$ $`\mathrm{¡}\mathrm{}`$ 0.25. The 45 sources brighter than $`K_s`$=14.5 and with infrared excesses are clustered spatially around the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud and are likely association members. Seven of these relatively bright sources with excesses are new candidate members of Chamaeleon I, including one which is also variable. In total, 10 new candidate members have been identified, 8 of which have colors and magnitudes consistent with young brown dwarfs at the distance of Chamaeleon I. These observations suggest that the current census of the Chamaeleon I population is complete for objects brighter than $`K_s`$=12 and with a near-infrared excess in the $`JH`$ vs. $`HK_s`$ diagram.

As a product of this study, these observations have yielded a precise dataset of photometry and astrometry for previously identified Chamaeleon I members. In the Appendix we summarize the $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ magnitudes and cross-identifications for Chamaeleon I members.

We would like to thank the 2MASS Observatory Staff and the Data Management Team for acquiring and pipeline processing the special survey observations used in this investigation. This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation. 2MASS science data and information services were provided by the InfraRed Science Archive (IRSA) at IPAC. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. JMC acknowledges support from Long Term Space Astrophysics Grant NAG5-8217 and the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through grant AST-9981546.

## Appendix A Astrometry and Photometry for Previously Identified Members of Chamaeleon I

During the course of this study, a membership list for Chamaeleon I was compiled using published observations. This Appendix presents the compilation of known and candidate members of the Chamaeleon I association, and summarizes the astrometry and $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ photometry obtained from our observations.

The Chamaeleon I association was initially identified as a spatial concentration of optical variable stars (Hoffmeister, 1962). Subsequent studies expanded the association membership through objective prism or CCD H$`\alpha `$ emission-line surveys (Henize & Mendoza, 1973; Schwartz, 1977; Hartigan, 1993) and spectroscopic follow-up of individual stars (Appenzeller, 1977,79; Rydgren, 1980; Appenzeller, Jankovics, & Krautter, 1983) to identify stars with spectral features characteristic of pre-main-sequence objects. More recent objective prism surveys, followed by spectroscopic observations and multi-wavelength imaging, have begun to probe the Chamaeleon I population in the substellar regime (Comerón, Rieke, & Neuhäuser, 1999; Comerón, Neuhäuser, & Kaas, 2000). Additional pre-main-sequence candidates have been identified in x-rays from Einstein (Feigelson & Kriss, 1989) and ROSAT (Feigelson et al., 1993; Alcalá et al., 1995), where pre-main-sequence counterparts to the x-ray sources have been identified from optical spectroscopic follow-up observations (Walter, 1992; Huenemoerder, Lawson, & Feigelson, 1994; Alcalá et al., 1995; Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder, 1996). Candidate cloud members that remain deeply embedded in the cloud have been identified from the presence of excess near-infrared emission (Hyland, Jones, & Mitchell, 1982; Jones et al., 1985; Cambrésy et al., 1998; Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani, 1999; Gómez & Kenyon, 2001), red far-infrared colors from IRAS (Baud et al., 1984; Assendorp et al., 1990; Prusti et al., 1991; Whittet, Prusti, & Wesselius, 1991; Gauvin & Strom, 1992), and more recently, red mid-infrared colors from ISO (Nordh et al., 1996; Persi et al., 2000; Lehtinen et al., 2001). In total, the candidate members identified by infrared excesses can more than double the known stellar population.

Table 5 summarizes the status of the stellar and substellar membership in the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud prior to this study. We include in Table 5 stars that are optically variable or show H$`\alpha `$ emission as summarized by Whittet et al. (1987) and references therein for pre-1987 observations, the H$`\alpha `$ objects and red stars from Hartigan (1993), the brown dwarfs from Comerón, Neuhäuser, & Kaas (2000), candidate members identified from IRAS (Baud et al., 1984; Whittet, Prusti, & Wesselius, 1991) and ISO (Persi et al., 2000), and optical counterparts to x-ray sources that have spectroscopic signatures of pre-main-sequence stars (Walter, 1992; Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder, 1996). Table 5 also included possible deeply embedded members of Chamaeleon I that have recently been identified by the presence of excessed near-infrared (Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani, 1999) and mid-infrared emission (Persi et al., 2000). Cambrésy et al. (1998) and Gómez & Kenyon (2001) have also identified $``$ 150 candidate members based on the presence of near-infrared excess emission (and, in the case Cambresy et al. 1998, red sources without necessarily an infrared excess). Since the majority of the near-infrared excess candidates could not be confirmed with our data (see Section 4.2), these objects are not listed in Table 5 unless that stars contains other characteristics indicating it is a pre-main-sequence object (see also Table 4).

Column 1 in Table 5 lists the commonly adopted name of the Chamaeleon I members. Due to the multitude of observations of the Chamaeleon I region, many of the sources have been observed as part of several studies, and the cross identifications of the various names are provided in Table Near-Infrared Photometric Variability of Stars Toward the Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud. Most of the cross identifications were made by matching the coordinates in the original references. Two notable exceptions are that the positions for sources in the General Catalog of Variable stars were taken from López & Girard (1990) when possible, and the association of IRAS sources from Baud et al. (1984) were taken from Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder (1996). Columns 2 and 3 list the J2000 equatorial coordinates, where the coordinates have been obtained from, in order of preference, (1) this study, (2) the 2MASS Working Database (Version 2 processing) for stars outside our survey coverage, and (3) the literature. The coordinates listed in Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani (1999) were found to differ from 2MASS by up to 10″. For sources detected only by Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani (1999), an astrometric correction was applied based on nearby sources detected both by our observations and Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani (1999). Columns 4-12 list the mean $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K_s`$ magnitudes, photometric RMS, and number of measurements. Column 13 lists the Stetson variability index derived from our data. 2MASS photometry for Chamaeleon I members located outside our survey boundaries have been obtained from the Version 2 2MASS Working Database. These sources can be identified in Table 5 as having no Stetson index and with N$``$=1 in each band. The RMS in such instances represent the photometric uncertainty from the 2MASS data reduction pipeline excluding zero point calibration uncertainties, which are typically $``$ 1% in each band.

As noted by Schwartz (1991), many of the sources are only suspected members of the cloud and have yet to be verified spectroscopically to be pre-main-sequence stars. In particular, some stars have been identified as Chamaeleon I members because they are variable or have red photometric colors (but without an infrared excess), but no additional evidence has been obtained to indicate these are not simply field stars. Accordingly, the flags in Column 11 indicate the properties associated with each source that suggests it is a pre-main-sequence object. The flags indicate, in order from left to right, (1) known variables from the General Catalog of Variable Stars or this study; (2) H$`\alpha `$ emitting objects from Henize & Mendoza (1973), Schwartz (1977); Hartigan (1993), Walter (1992), Huenemoerder, Lawson, & Feigelson (1994), Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder (1996), Comerón, Rieke, & Neuhäuser (1999), and Comerón, Neuhäuser, & Kaas (2000), and objects with Pa$`\beta `$ or Br$`\gamma `$ in emission from Gómez & Persi (2002); (3) stars with lithium in absorption from Walter (1992), Huenemoerder, Lawson, & Feigelson (1994), and Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder (1996); (4) x-ray sources from Feigelson & Kriss (1989) and Feigelson et al. (1993); (5) near- or mid-infrared excesses from Oasa, Tamura, & Sugitani (1999), Persi et al. (2000), and this study; and (6) far-infrared sources from Baud et al. (1984), Assendorp et al. (1990), Prusti et al. (1991), and IRAS Point Source Catalog. The flag ’Y’ indicates the characteristic has been identified with that star in at least one study; The flag ‘?’ indicates that the authors of the original paper expressed uncertainty of the detection; and the flag ’0’ indicates the property has not yet been identified.

Notes on individual sources:

UX ChaFeigelson & Kriss (1989) associated UX Cha (= T 22) with the x-ray source CHX 8. However, as originally noted by Feigelson et al. (1993), UX Cha is actually located 26′′ to the north. The finder chart in Schwartz (1991) identifies the incorrect star as UX Cha.

C9-1, C9-2, and C9-3Hyland, Jones, & Mitchell (1982) identified these objects as Chamaeleon I members based on bolometer data. Each of these objects is located in the bright Infrared Nebula (IRN). However, none of these sources are visible on the 2MASS images. While it is possible that these objects are variable and have faded from view, we find it more likely that they are knots in nebulosity and have not included these objects in the membership list.

T 2 — This source has been traditionally identified as a member of Chamaeleon I based on its optical variability. However, Winterberg & Bruch (1996) showed that this source is a RR Lyra star unrelated to Chamaeleon I. This source is not listed in Table 5.

T 36 — This source has traditionally been associated with Chamaeleon I based on its optical variability, but the near-infrared colors and magnitudes of this star ($`K_s`$=12.809, $`HK_s`$=0.184 are inconsistent with membership. While this star is listed in Table 5, spectroscopic observations are needed to ascertain membership.

T49, CHX 18N, and IRAS 11101-7603 — The IRAS source is closest to CHX 18N, but within the IRAS astrometric uncertainties may also be associated with T 49. It is listed under both objects in Table 5.

T 52 and T 53Feigelson & Kriss (1989) lists both sources as possible optical counterparts to the x-ray source CHX 19. Subsequent high resolution observations with ROSAT show the x-ray emission originates from T 52. (Feigelson et al., 1993). Therefore, we have not listed T 53 as a counterpart to CHX 19 in Table Near-Infrared Photometric Variability of Stars Toward the Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud.

CHXR 30 and B 38Lawson, Feigelson, & Huenemoerder (1996) associates CHXR 30 with B 38, while Cambrésy et al. (1998) and Kenyon, & Gómez (2001) list CHXR 30 and B 38 as separate sources. Two stars separated by 9.9″ are present on the 2MASS images. The eastern source is consistently identified as CHXR 30 in these studies. It is the brighter of the two 2MASS sources in the optical with a $`JK_s`$ color of 2.70. This star has not been conclusively been identified as pre-main-sequence object through spectroscopy, although Persi et al. (2000) identified a mid-infrared excess in this source from ISO observations. The western source, identified as B38 (Baud et al., 1984) by Cambrésy et al. (1998) and Kenyon, & Gómez (2001), is the redder of the two 2MASS objects with $`JK_s`$=3.45. This source is detected as a variable with a near-infrared excess in our observations. Since the beam of the IRAS observations used by Baud et al. (1984) encompasses both 2MASS sources, and the position uncertainty of the ROSAT x-ray observations is 8$`\mathrm{}`$, it is not clear which, or if both, sources contribute to the far-infrared and x-ray emission. In Table 5, we list the eastern source as CHXR 30a and B 38a, and the western source as CHXR30b and B 38b.

HM 8 and ISO 10Persi et al. (2000) tentatively matched ISO 10 with HM 8, but they noted the larger than average positional differences between the two objects. The positional difference is larger than the tolerance limit used here to match the ISO catalog with the 2MASS astrometry, and this association was not made in Table 5.