2MASS large-amplitude variable stars

The investigated region is in the direction of the Galactic center (-30{deg}<~l<~20, |b|<~20), which covers the entire bulge. We have detected 136 variable stars, of which six are already known and 118 are distributed in the |b|<5{deg} region.

Additionally, 84 variable stars have optical counterparts in Digitized Sky Survey images. The three diagrams (color-magnitude, light variance, and color-color diagrams) indicate that most of the detected variable stars should be large-amplitude and long-period variables such as Mira variables or OH/IR stars. The number density distribution of the detected variable stars implies that they trace the bar structure of the Galactic bulge.