A SEARCH FOR NEAR-INFRARED VARIABILITY IN LSI-DEGREES-303(61)

We present new near-infrared (NIR) broadband photometry of LSI+61 degr ees 303 centered around two predicted radio maxima and minima in order to search for NIR variability that may or may not be correlated with the periodic radio variations in this object. To improve the significa nce of any upper limit on variability, we adopted a differential measu rement technique to minimize the photometric uncertainties. We have co mbined our data with those in the literature and calculated the deredd ened NIR excess for the combined data set. Although the excess varies stochastically by more than a factor of two, a search for periodicitie s in the NIR excess with the phase dispersion minimization method give s no statistically significant periodic variation. Moreover, we find n o hour-timescale fluctuations in the NIR of the sort detected at optic al wavebands. The J-H and H-K colors of the dereddened NIR excess are blue, and roughly consistent with those expected from isothermal circu mstellar disks or 4000-5000 K blackbodies.