A three-year Stromgren photometric survey of suspected beta Pictoris-like stars

We carried out it Stromgren photometric survey of thirteen southern bright stars, including. beta Pictoris itself, during three years, d'Astrophysique de Paris, in order to detect possible weak photometric variations, beta Pi ctoris presents a small long-term variation with a change of brightness by -2.1 10(-3) mag per year, over about two years from beginning of 1996, a si tuation relatively similar to the one about 18 years ago. Among the other s tars, only HD 38392 presents weak photometric variations with a period of 2 1.4 days, probably related to the star rotation period. The negative result concerning photometric variations of all other stars suggests that those s tars are actually really stable and strengthens the reality of the variatio ns discovered in the case of beta Pictoris and HD 38392.