Two released WASP-43 b transit rows fail a 1000 s check; screened times permit a constant period with a free epoch and fitted Gaussian noise
We audit the 282 public WASP-43 b transit-time rows in CDS J/A+A/694/A233. Rows 61 and 271 miss a reference clock by about 81 days and 4.43 hours. We preserve the raw rows and exclude them. We also remove two fits that use overlapping TESS data. The remaining 278 rows form 238 epoch groups. Under independent Gaussian errors, a free reference time and fitted extra scatter give a period-change rate of -4.31 milliseconds per year. Its 95% profile interval is -9.21 to +0.58. The quadratic-minus-linear BIC difference is +2.49. Fixing the reference time gives -7.52 and an interval that excludes zero. A stricter row screen moves the free-reference rate toward zero. We also extract 110 transit times from four public 120-second TESS light curves in sectors 9, 35, 62, and 89. Their sector means give -0.02 +/- 2.17 milliseconds per year. Four extraction controls change each sector mean by less than 0.48 seconds. The results permit a constant period and smaller reported decay rates. They do not repeat or reject the full joint model of velocities, transits, and occultations. The contribution is an exact release audit, a clock and noise sensitivity test, and a reproducible TESS timing dataset. The package preserves raw inputs, hashes, source code, results, figures, and offline instructions.
WASP-43 b · transit timing · orbital decay · TESS · data audit · Gaussian noise · reproducible astronomy
References
7- usesdoi:10.1051/0004-6361/202451994
We audit its released CDS transit table and use its listed transit extra error as a fixed control. Our transit-only analysis does not reconstruct its full joint orbit model.
- usesdoi:10.17909/2tqw-gk90
We fit public TESS 120-second SPOC light curves for TIC 36734222 in sectors 9, 35, 62, and 89. Exact products and hashes are preserved.
- usesdoi:10.1086/683602
The batman package supplies the integrated transit model for the new timing extraction.
- doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ae5b78
This earlier study already uses all four TESS sectors and reports no significant decay. Our new result is the release audit and measured sensitivity of a different timing table.
- doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac1baf
This study supplies individual TESS times in the audited compilation and reports decay from earlier timing data.
- doi:10.1093/mnras/stab2929
This earlier timing study gives a period-change rate consistent with zero.
- Free source timing offsets remove more than 90% of period change information in 43 of 115 systems in a 2022 transit catalog sci:sha256:361975de1be4f2ad9783a0385173d9d3213b82580ddc31835761a89ca6366c39
This related work tests information loss from free source timing offsets in a different catalog. We test a global reference time and do not reuse its data or code.
Cited by
1 publicationPublic catalog entries on Sciscape.
- usesFive TESS visits limit the WASP-43 b timing wave at 0.1727 deg/day to 12.2 s at nominal 95% with a free quadratic clock and Gaussian errors
We build on its four-visit clock check. A fifth visit permits two independent wave constraints with a free quadratic clock. We write new code and do not treat the first four light curves as independent new data.