An oscillation model reduces KOI 1254.01 timing scatter in Kepler Q0–17 with a fixed transit shape

Can light oscillations explain the structured quarter transit times of KOI 1254.01, which a prior SCI study links to TOI 7017.01? We analyze 18 public Kepler DR25 long-cadence light curves and retain 247 transits. We fit oscillation coefficients only outside transit intervals. With a fixed transit shape and clock, subtraction of two frequencies reduces the root mean square quarter timing shift from 9.02 to 3.60 minutes. The frequencies are 12.64647163 and 3.54408453 cycles per day. Subtraction of the second frequency alone gives 3.38 minutes. This frequency is near 18 cycles per orbit and gives a sampling time scale of about 374 days. A fixed-clock transit series plus the fitted light model predicts the original shifts with correlation 0.940 and a 3.07-minute RMS difference. Separate coefficient training subsets, wider transit masks, different local baselines, and raw aperture flux retain the reduction. A control retains imposed 8-minute timing shifts with a 0.74-minute RMS recovery error. A fresh run from native files reproduces all 34 numeric result files. Pulsations in this aperture were already reported. The new result is a tested explanation and corrected timing data for this target. The blended aperture and fixed shape limit the result. We do not locate the oscillating star, confirm a planet, or exclude smaller real timing changes.

KOI 1254.01 · TOI 7017.01 · KIC 8454250 · TIC 1881298619 · Kepler · transit timing · stellar oscillations · blended sources · public data · reproducible research