10.1 Introduction

Author(s): Laurent Eyer, Berry Holl, Lorenzo Rimoldini

This chapter presents the models and methods used to produce the results of Gaia variable objects with the 34 months of Gaia DR3 data. The variability processing and analysis was based mostly on time series of field-of-view (FoV) transit (integrated) photometry in the calibrated $G$, $G_{\mathrm{BP}}$, and $G_{\mathrm{RP}}$ bands. Additional input data types were used for selected work packages: radial velocity time series from the RVS instrument for Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars (Sections 10.5 and 10.11), RP spectral time series for long period variables (Section 10.8), and per-CCD $G$-band photometry for short timescale variability (Section 10.12).

The variability analysis approach to the Gaia data is described in Eyer et al. (2017) and an overview of the Gaia DR3 results are presented in Eyer et al. (2023). Detailed methods on specific topics are published in a number of separate articles after the data release date. A performance verification paper dedicated to non-radial pulsators in the Milky Way is presented in Gaia Collaboration et al. (2023d).

Chapter 10 is organised as follows. The global processing is described in Section 10.2 and subsequent Sections present different data products: general classification in Section 10.3, active galactic nuclei in Section 10.4, Cepheid candidates in Section 10.5, compact companion candidates in Section 10.6, eclipsing binary candidates in Section 10.7, long period variables in Section 10.8, microlensing candidates in Section 10.9, planetary transit candidates in Section 10.10, RR Lyrae stars in Section 10.11, short-timescale variability in Section 10.12, solar-like rotational modulation candidates in Section 10.13, and upper main-sequence oscillators in Section 10.14.