The fitted GJ 3222 b HARPS amplitude grows without bound as eccentricity tends to one at fixed published periods and dates of closest approach

We test whether the HARPS velocities of GJ 3222 place a finite upper limit on the fitted short orbit amplitude as eccentricity tends to one. We use 61 exposures as 30 night means. Both published periods and dates of closest approach, and the outer eccentricity, stay fixed. We fit two velocity amplitudes and angles, two offsets, and Gaussian extra error. A scaled Kepler basis has a finite, full rank limit at the measured times. Its nonzero fitted cosine coefficient makes the recovered amplitude grow as 1/(1-e). Between e = 0.929 and 0.9999, the amplitude rises from 9.204 to 1,969.813 m/s. Across 117 tested eccentricities from 0.929 through the limiting basis, the total twice negative log likelihood range is 0.00855. A separate full orbit date search gives small fit changes at high eccentricity. We adopt a semi-major axis of 0.091 au and stellar radius of 0.931389 solar radii. A point planet clears this surface only below e = 0.9524023. These central values come from different sources and do not define a joint uncertainty. The extreme mathematical tail is therefore excluded by this geometric condition. The result describes a conditional fit, not an orbital posterior, a new planet detection, or rejection of the published planet. The package contains source data, hashes, code, results, four figures, and run instructions.

GJ 3222 · HARPS · radial velocity · eccentricity · Kepler equation · profile likelihood · orbit geometry · reproducible research