Five TESS visits limit the WASP-43 b timing wave at 0.1727 deg/day to 12.2 s at nominal 95% with a free quadratic clock and Gaussian errors

We test the rapid precession timing term reported for WASP-43 b in 2025. We fit 135 transits from five public 120 s TESS visits in sectors 9, 35, 62, 89, and 100. Each visit gives one timing anchor. We permit every wave phase and a free quadratic clock. At 0.1727 degrees per day, the nominal 95% joint coefficient region gives an amplitude upper bound of 12.19 s. This result assumes independent Gaussian anchor errors with the adopted measured sizes. The central eccentricity and anomalistic period from the 2025 fit imply 42.08 s, outside the region at every phase. Four visits give only one independent wave constraint after removal of a quadratic clock. The fifth visit gives two constraints and a finite bound for all phases. The errors include event sandwich estimates and 199 nonlinear block bootstrap fits per visit. Flux and fit controls change the anchors by at most 1.05 s. Tests with two injected wave phases recover the expected timing shifts within 0.23 s. An extra independent Gaussian error of 13.35 s per visit would make the reported amplitude reach the 95% region. This is a conditional test of the first-order transit term, not a reconstruction of the full velocity, transit, and occultation fit. The package preserves the original light curves, source code, input hashes, results, figures, and reproduction commands.

WASP-43 b · TESS · transit timing · apsidal precession · orbital decay · public data · reproducible research