In case of pre-main sequence objects, the only way to determine age and mass
is by fitting theoretical isochrones on color-magnitude (alternatively
luminosity-temperature) diagrams. Since young stellar objects exhibit
photometric variability over wide range in magnitude and colors, the age and
mass determined by fitting isochrones is expected to be inaccurate, if not
erroneous. These in turn will badly affect any study carried out on age spread
and process of star formation. Since we have carried out very extensive
photometric observations of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), we decided to use
our multi-band data to explore the influence of variability in determining mass
and age of cluster members. In this study, we get the amplitudes of the
photometric variability in V, R, and I optical bands of a sample of 346 ONC
members and use it to investigate how the variability affects the inferred
masses and ages and if it alone can take account for the age spread among the
ONC members reported by earlier studies. We find that members that show
periodic and smooth photometric rotational modulation have their masses and
ages unaffected by variability. On other hand, we found that members with
periodic but very scattered photometric rotational modulation and members with
irregular variability have their masses and ages significantly affected.
Moreover, using Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams we find that the observed I
band photometric variability can take account of only a fraction (about 50%) of
the inferred age spread, whereas the V band photometric variability is large
enough to mask any age spread.Comment: Accepted by MNRAS; 17 pages, 4 Tables, 15 Figure
