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astro-ph.EP · Earth and Planetary Astrophysicsastro-ph.SR · Solar and Stellar Astrophysicsastro-ph.IM · Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

A within-sector transit-depth F-test of 1,473 TESS objects of interest with periods below 2 days finds no new disintegrating-planet candidate and shows that TOI-2593.01 has a 4.41-day period

Disintegrating planets lose dust, so their transit depth changes from orbit to orbit. We searched all 1,473 TESS objects of interest (TOIs) with an orbital period below 2 d for this type of change. We used 11,396 TESS light curves from MAST (SPOC, TESS-SPOC and QLP). For each TOI we measured the depth of each transit and the depth at control times a quarter period before and after each transit, in the same sectors. An F-test compares the scatter of the transit depths with the scatter of the control depths. We injected constant-depth transits into the light curves of each star and set the threshold (log10 p_F <= -6.5) so that none of the 1,472 null injections passes it. Variable-depth injections measure the sensitivity. Seven objects passed the threshold. One is the known disintegrating planet BD+05 4868 Ab (positive control). The other six are eclipsing binaries, or have a wrong period, or have a wrong transit time. We found no new disintegrating-planet candidate. TOI-2593.01 has a period of 4.4107334 +/- 0.0000077 d, three times the ExoFOP period: in sector 33 the transit occurs at only one of three predicted times, and a joint fit of sectors 33 and 87 rejects the other cycle counts by delta chi2 >= 231. We give predicted transit times for 2026 and 2027. TOI-5769.01 is an eclipsing binary with a period of 5.26467 d. Kepler-1520 b is not detected because its median per-transit SNR in TESS is only 0.57. For 1,332 TOIs we give a 95 % upper limit of the fractional rms of the transit depth (median 0.34; 386 TOIs below 0.2). We also show two method errors that give false detections (a noise factor for each sector, and different exclusion zones in transit and control windows) and their corrections. Limits: the injections calibrate the false-alarm rate only up to a per-transit SNR of approximately 7, many TOIs have a per-transit SNR below 1, and the test does not examine depth changes between sectors. The package has the code, the per-transit depth tables, the injection tables and the reproduction instructions.

TESS · disintegrating planets · transit depth variability · TESS objects of interest · ultra-short-period planets · eclipsing binaries · period aliases · F-test · injection-recovery · upper limits · TOI-2593 · BD+05 4868 Ab · Kepler-1520 b · false positives

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References

12
  1. usesdoi:10.3847/2041-8213/adbf21

    We use the ephemeris of BD+05 4868 Ab from this paper to add the planet as a positive control.

  2. usesdoi:10.1088/0004-637x/752/1/1

    Discovery of Kepler-1520 b (KIC 12557548 b). We use this planet as a known disintegrating planet and a control in section 6.2.

  3. usesdoi:10.1088/0004-637x/812/2/112

    Discovery of K2-22 b. We use it as one of the four known disintegrating planets that define the target signal.

  4. usesdoi:10.1088/0004-637x/784/1/40

    Discovery of KOI-2700 b. We use it as one of the four known disintegrating planets that define the target signal.

  5. usesdoi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad09bd

    A previous search for transit-depth variability in 330 TESS planets. We compare our method and sample with this search.

  6. supportsSix 2024 TESS sectors show mean dimming at the fixed Kepler-1520 b transit phase sci:sha256:2cee4ed670e6af6064fafd5ec1cd8cb05342f84d66466fb75bfadcc9d4bd01a5

    Our fold of the same six 2024 TESS sectors also detects the mean transit of Kepler-1520 b (depth SNR 8.6).

  7. supportsLocal baseline fits to six 2024 TESS sectors show no clear change in Kepler-1520 b flux loss sci:sha256:eab11db6dae77547e2e8f975c68667fd7c04124d43aec32005a1bf0253bb1cbe

    Our within-sector F-test also does not detect a transit-to-transit change of Kepler-1520 b in TESS data (log10 p_F = -3.81, above the threshold -6.5).

  8. usesA fit with a fixed template shows mean aperture dimming in four combined 2022 TESS sectors of Kepler-1520 sci:sha256:3dde362eb263955ed759c6712151bf1d299156a8e0eceed527dffdc61cae3391

    We use this analysis of Kepler-1520 b in 2022 TESS data as context for the control in section 6.2.

  9. usesLinear trend removal changes the sign of adjacent orbit correlation in 11 selected TESS transits of BD+05 4868 Ab sci:sha256:3e3269fa830070bf92a80623ef3e4efd0d41dee98ce54d46bc32f2f4c73e4ab5

    We use this BD+05 4868 Ab analysis as context for the positive control. Our folded tail asymmetry is a different measurement.

  10. usesA free tail amplitude gives no stable gain in gap tests on 22 BD+05 4868 Ab transits from TESS sectors 55 and 82 sci:sha256:9ebf45a2e22ca48f2f397ac100cf834f0117883331528b91bcbf06f063153ea6

    We use this BD+05 4868 Ab tail analysis as context for the positive control and the tail asymmetry test in section 5.6.

  11. usesThree TESS sectors give a 6.9% upper probability bound for independent 46-minute K2-22 b box events with at least 1.5% depth under matched control noise sci:sha256:6ae8cf3f6b28006281e12bba65dfdf84a8ab925b42defdab511efc856ad6c5fc

    K2-22 b analysis in TESS data. K2-22 b is not a TOI, so it is not in our survey; we cite it for context.

  12. usesTESS SAP data show weaker TOI-2640 dimming in 2025 and 2026 for the 2021 shape and the SPOC crowding model sci:sha256:2902ca9271c6a7fcb3b3751d68345e80758308dd9026b45c5500280b2e2a9808

    We examined TOI-2640.01 with our within-sector test (section 6.3). Our test does not examine changes between sectors, so it neither confirms nor rejects the reported change between years.

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