A synthetic sample of short-cadence solar-like oscillators for TESS

TL;DR

This paper introduces a synthetic catalogue of short-cadence solar-like oscillators for TESS, aiding in pipeline testing and observational planning by simulating realistic stellar lightcurves.

Contribution

It presents the first public release of the asteroFLAG Artificial Dataset Generator and a realistic mock catalogue of TESS-like solar-like oscillators.

Findings

Generated lightcurves closely mimic TESS observations

Catalogue includes stars from Milky Way simulation and TESS target selection

Provides noise-free lightcurves for pipeline testing

Abstract

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has begun a two-year survey of most of the sky, which will include lightcurves for thousands of solar-like oscillators sampled at a cadence of two minutes. To prepare for this steady stream of data, we present a mock catalogue of lightcurves, designed to realistically mimic the properties of the TESS sample. In the process, we also present the first public release of the asteroFLAG Artificial Dataset Generator, which simulates lightcurves of solar-like oscillators based on input mode properties. The targets are drawn from a simulation of the Milky Way's populations and are selected in the same way as TESS's true Asteroseismic Target List. The lightcurves are produced by combining stellar models, pulsation calculations and semi-empirical models of solar-like oscillators. We describe the details of the catalogue and provide several examples. We provide pristine lightcurves to which noise can be added easily. This mock catalogue will be valuable in testing asteroseismology pipelines for TESS and our methods can be applied in preparation and planning for other observatories and observing campaigns.