Five weak tidal modes do not resolve a shared seasonal gain in KIC 8164262 Kepler data

We test whether five known weak tidal modes in KIC 8164262 share the fractional seasonal gain of its strong mode in Kepler release 25, quarters 1 to 16. We fit the known frequencies together and retain cross-mode error covariance. The test compares constant weak-mode coefficients with a gain template from the strong mode. Numerical injections measure the conditional sensitivity. The expected shared response separates the models by only 0.17 in aperture flux and 0.46 in corrected flux, in units of the stated noise model. The conditional intervals include both explanations in all ten configurations. The data do not resolve the shared gain. No new astronomical signal is claimed. The result uses one telescope. Flux products share exposures, and the statistical model holds the gain template and estimated covariance fixed.

Kepler · KIC 8164262 · tidal oscillations · seasonal gain · sensitivity · null result