A fixed 500 ppm search finds 4 early dimming clusters and none later in nine TESS light curves of Beta Pictoris

We test short dimming detections in released two-minute flux from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) for Beta Pictoris. We use the archive's corrected flux (PDC) as the primary product. A prior SCI study found no deep detections in three later sectors. We extend its fixed search to seven early sectors. We require common time coverage for all nine tested tail shapes. The early set has 115.56 days of allowed onset time in 2018–2021. The main later set has 33.67 days in 2024–2026. We select fitted losses of at least 500 parts per million (ppm), with a formal fit score of at least 8. The corrected archive flux gives 4 early dimming clusters and no later clusters. We calculate a reference test with independent Poisson counts and equal detection efficiency. The one-sided conditional p value for a lower later rate is 0.360. This test does not reject equal rates at 5%. We publish both flux products, opposite-sign detections, and 2700 trials with chosen shapes and start times. These tests use released archive flux. They do not repeat image extraction or the archive flux correction. At 500 ppm, local PDC tests recover 900/1890 early inputs and 282/540 main later inputs. Sector 95 has an official aperture warning. We use it only in a sensitivity check. The result measures this detector on these archive products. It does not establish a change in the physical comet rate or a new comet or planet.

Beta Pictoris · TESS · exocomets · selection function · injection recovery · Poisson counts · public archive