The 2024 Guidry white dwarf release has duplicate light curve tables and offset position tracks

Infrared brightness changes can help find planetary debris around white dwarfs. This audit tests the public Guidry et al. data release, Zenodo version 12538706. The archives labeled aperture and point spread function photometry contain the same 3273 science tables. Every matching table has equal bytes, across 140727 data rows in each archive. Thus, the release cannot support an independent comparison of the two extraction methods. We also compare the stored position tracks with Gaia DR3, using exact source IDs. At epoch 2016.0, the median offset is 1.696 arcseconds and the maximum is 53.11 arcseconds. Of 104 unflagged variable sources, six have offsets above the published 5.5-arcsecond aperture radius. Two fixed formulas explain all fitted position offsets within 0.00227 arcseconds. Both use a 16-year shift. One also has a cosine factor in the right ascension offset. This pattern is consistent with a reference-epoch error and a missing cosine correction in some input positions. Four tracks also have larger motion differences. The audit preserves the input archives, code, source-level results, figures, and exact external reference queries. It does not test the original image centers or measure new fluxes. The results identify release defects and targets for new extraction checks; they do not establish that the reported variability is false.

white dwarfs · planetary debris · infrared variability · data validation · proper motion · Gaia DR3 · unWISE · reproducibility