A 4.3–5.0-hour box search finds no score above 10 in WD 1145+017 TESS Sector 72 data

WD 1145+017 can show deep eclipses from orbiting dust. This study tests public TESS Sector 72 data for stable repeating eclipses. The common selection has 14487 samples at 120-second cadence over 23.17 days in November and December 2023. A box search tests 4097 periods from 4.3 to 5.0 hours. The tested widths are 4, 8, 16, and 32 minutes. Straight lines are removed from fixed 12-hour segments. The largest scores are 4.97 in SAP and 4.95 in PDCSAP. Both peaks occur at 4.49047 hours. Neither reaches the threshold of 10. All 128 block-sign control maxima are below 5.34. The score is not a calibrated Gaussian significance. Artificial stable boxes give 5600 trials across both products. Each width has 100 shared period and phase draws at seven depths. Each primary trial supplies the nearest grid period. For widths of 4 or 8 minutes, both products recover 100 of 100 trials at 32 percent target-relative depth. For widths of 16 or 32 minutes, the count is 100 of 100 at 16 percent depth. These are the lowest tested depths with at least 95 recoveries in both products. For the same finite trials, these counts also bound full-search threshold alerts from below because the supplied period is in the search grid. They do not by themselves guarantee correct period selection. Full searches of 160 of these same trials also recover the injected periods under the stated phase and drift tests. SAP and PDCSAP use the same photons. The test fixes errors, thresholds, crowding factors, and the observed noise. Signals enter the delivered photometry and do not pass through the earlier SPOC processing. The result does not exclude changing dust events or events in rejected samples and gaps. The package preserves original archive files, source hashes, code, all trials, and figures.

WD 1145+017 · TESS Sector 72 · planetary debris · white dwarf · repeating eclipses · injection recovery · public astronomical data · box least squares