False Alarms Revealed in a Planet Search of TESS Light Curves

TL;DR

This paper analyzes false alarms in TESS light curve planet searches, revealing period-related noise pileups and proposing light curve inversion as a method to improve vetting accuracy.

Contribution

It identifies noise-related period pileups in TESS data and introduces light curve inversion as a novel approach for false alarm simulation and vetting enhancement.

Findings

Significant period pileups linked to noise sources.

Inverted light curve analysis shows similar false alarm structures.

Light curve inversion can help develop better vetting metrics.

Abstract

We examined the period distribution of transit-like signatures uncovered in a Box-Least Squares transit search of TESS light curves, and show significant pileups at periods related to instrumental and astrophysical noise sources. Signatures uncovered in a search of inverted light curves feature similar structures in the period distribution. Automated vetting methods will need to remove these excess detections, and light curve inversion appears to be a suitable method for simulating false alarms and designing new vetting metrics.