All-sector TESS data link 24 of 37 testable Gaia DR3 transit candidates to real dips, show 4 planet-like signals that are not in TOI lists or in a prior campaign study, and exclude 9 Gaia signals

Question: Which of the unconfirmed candidates in the Gaia DR3 table vari_planetary_transit are real transits or eclipses, at which period, and why are most table periods wrong? Method: We folded the Gaia DR3 G epoch photometry of all 214 sources (bulk files) on the table ephemerides and on published ephemerides of 174 known planets. For the 39 unconfirmed candidates (plus the demoted Kepler-840 b) we searched all TESS sectors available on 2026-11-08 (1-44 per star; SPOC, TESS-SPOC, QLP, and our own TESScut photometry for 3 stars). We tested whether each TESS ephemeris predicts the dimmed Gaia epochs of 2014-2017, vetted with empirical odd-even and secondary-eclipse tests and radii, and used injection-recovery for non-detections. Results: The table period is correct for 13 of 174 known planets. It is wrong for all 102 planets with 2 or fewer Gaia epochs in transit, and correct for 8 of 10 with 6 or more. TESS links 24 of 37 candidates with TESS data to the Gaia dips (10 at the Gaia period, 6 at a simple alias, 8 at an unrelated period). 13 are planet-compatible and 11 are eclipsing-binary-like or too large. Seven planet-compatible signals are not in the ExoFOP TOI or CTOI lists; four of these are also not in a sibling campaign study of the same table: TIC 445886244 (1.474219 d), TIC 87433458 (1.615491 d), TIC 435052739 (1.81658 d, one sector) and TIC 169468881 (17.691796 d; the table gives 2.024 d). TESS excludes the Gaia signal for 9 candidates (injected Gaia-depth signals are recovered in all trials); 4 are inconclusive and 2 have no TESS data. Per-event depths do not support the sibling EB class of the 17.69-d signal, and 43 TESS sectors do not show the sibling matched signal of Gaia DR3 4677436783705094912. Limitations: No spectroscopy, imaging or centroid analysis; all new signals are candidates only. Radii use box depths. One candidate has one TESS sector. CDS catalogues were not reachable.

Gaia DR3 · TESS · transiting exoplanets · planet candidates · period aliasing · eclipsing binaries · vari_planetary_transit · box least squares · injection-recovery · hot Jupiters · warm Jupiters · catalog validation