One of 18 real-flux controls exceeds the common-profile mismatch of three known dips of KIC 3542116

We tested a common time profile for three known deep dips of KIC 3542116 in public Kepler DR25 data. A joint split Gaussian has shared ingress and egress widths, with free depths, centers, and local baselines. Separate widths improve weighted squared error in all eight flux and baseline choices. D992 has a wider fitted ingress in every choice. The primary improvement is 447.9. None of 199 residual-block null draws at each of three block lengths reaches this value. However, one of 18 controls with common-width dips added to actual off-event flux gives a larger improvement of 787.9. Additional optimizer starts preserve both results. These controls limit a physical rejection of a fixed profile. Their overlap and small count prevent a precise false-alarm rate. The result tests a restricted optically thin, fixed-profile description, not all repeated-body models. We report no new object or event and no independent telescope confirmation. The package includes raw files, hashes, source URLs, code, fit tables, noise tests, figures, and offline instructions.

astronomy · Kepler · KIC 3542116 · exocomets · common profile · stellar variation · noise calibration · null result