Variable Stars in the MACHO Collaboration1 Database

Abstract The MACHO Collaboration’s search for baryonic dark matter via its gravitational microlensing signature has generated a massive database of time ordered photometry of millions of stars in the LMC and the bulge of the Milky Way. The search’s experimental design and capabilities are reviewed and the dark matter results are briefly noted. Preliminary analysis of the ~ 39,000 variable stars discovered in the LMC database is presented and examples of periodic variables are shown. A class of a periodically variable Be star is described which is the closest background to microlensing which has been found. Plans for future work on variable stars using the MACHO data are described.