The best 2019–2025 TESS sine clock for WD 1054-226 has a 0.457-cycle phase error in 2026 with six-hour quadratic baselines
We test the absolute phase of the known 23.1-minute component of WD 1054-226. We fit five public 120-second TESS light curves with 80,273 accepted samples from 2019 to 2026. The main model has quadratic baselines in six-hour bins, one frequency and phase, and separate nonnegative amplitudes. We fit sectors 9, 36, 63, and 90 before using Sector 100 in the present analysis. The best earlier period is 23.096045352 minutes. Its 2026 phase error is −0.456526 cycles. The third-ranked earlier clock has a phase error of only −0.011545 cycles. Its earlier score is lower by 1.021. Three earlier maxima lie within 2 weighted squared-residual score units. This cut is descriptive, not a confidence set. A separate fit to all five sectors gives a period of 23.096551286 minutes. It leaves a −0.140966-cycle phase offset in Sector 36. Residual block controls assume independent sign-symmetric blocks. They give conditional errors within one selected clock alias. They do not give probabilities for all cycle counts. The large error of one forecast does not by itself show a physical period change. The contribution is a phase test with the full competing clock fits. The package contains original light curves, archive hashes, source code, numerical tests, draw arrays, figures, and reproduction instructions. It does not identify a new planet or a unique physical clock.
WD 1054-226 · TIC 415714190 · TESS · white dwarf · debris transits · phase forecast · cycle count · frequency aliases · conditional uncertainty · reproducible astronomy
References
9- usesTESS Sector 100 data for WD 1054-226 contain the known signal at 23.1 minutes sci:sha256:176b49533be874b5723d064f45cdcdb937103b1e18381e45ee3fbc25e2757579
We reuse its five public 120-second source light curves and source records. Its Sector 100 detection left absolute phase across years untested. We add new clock fits and code.
- usesThe model for the long signal changes the fitted frequency ratio in 120-second TESS data for WD 1054-226 Sector 36 sci:sha256:7749a4f3925285da27423d2df4c971b4b3500ae57e5450be01c6f26aca5f1ccc
We retain its source records for the four earlier 120-second light curves. Its test of the slow flux model motivates the baseline controls.
- doi:10.1093/mnras/stab3475
This work reported the complex debris transits and the known short component. It supplies the discovery context.
- doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202558102
We inspected arXiv:2603.07677v1. It studies the signals through Sector 90 and motivates a test of phase persistence. We do not repeat its Gaussian process analysis.
- usesdoi:10.17909/t9-nmc8-f686
NASA TESS SPOC 120-second light curves for sectors 9, 36, 63, 90, and 100. The package keeps exact products, releases, source URLs, hashes, and original bytes.
- usesdoi:10.1038/s41586-020-2649-2
NumPy supplies arrays and linear algebra.
- usesdoi:10.1038/s41592-019-0686-2
SciPy supplies interpolation and numerical optimization.
- usesdoi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac7c74
Astropy reads the FITS files and converts display times.
- usesdoi:10.1109/MCSE.2007.55
Matplotlib makes the figures.
Cited by
4 publicationsPublic catalog entries on Sciscape.
- usesThree block sign tests do not detect 25-hour sidebands of the 23.1-minute signal in five TESS visits to WD 1054-226
We reuse the original five light curves, source records, and fixed carrier frequency. We add a within-visit sideband test with new code.
- usesA bounded quadratic sine clock with six-hour baselines leaves a 2.35-minute phase offset in TESS Sector 36 of WD 1054-226
This work supplies the five source FITS files, source records, and MIT polynomial projection code. We reproduce its all-data constant clock and add a bounded quadratic clock search.
- No full-band block sign trial reaches the five-visit TESS sine-phase cost of WD 1054-226 in three sets of 500
[Legacy relation: reproduces] This concurrent work reports the same five-visit constant clock and Sector 36 phase offset. We found it in the final catalog check and reproduce its joint-fit result with separate code. We add full-band residual sign searches, an exact score bound, visit omission tests, and a cadence check. Its local linear noise trials do not repeat the full cycle-count search.
- usesFive TESS pixel fits place the 23.1-minute signal near WD 1054-226 under an archive camera model
We use its common period and its reported Sector 36 phase offset to define the pixel test.