DETECTION OF STELLAR VARIABILITY IN THE CENTRAL PARSEC OF THE GALAXY

We have searched for time variability of the stars in the central pars ec of the Galaxy through K-band (2.2 mu m) imaging and photometry. The observations were made with an array-based camera at the NASA Infrare d Telescope Facility in 1991, 1992, and 1993. In 1991, on timescales r anging from 20 s to a week, no time variability greater than 0.1 mag w as found for about five dozen sources in this region, and the brighter sources were stable to similar to 0.05 mag. On timescales of 1-2 yr, we found a new source near IRS 10E that varied in brightness by at lea st 1 mag and detected variability of 0.15 to 0.5 mag in several other sources, most notably the red giants IRS 9 and IRS 12N. None of the lu minous blue stars identified in the Galactic center region shows evide nce for variability.