A homogeneous TTV investigation of all TESS systems with a confirmed single transiting planet

TL;DR

This paper presents the largest homogeneous TTV analysis of TESS systems with single transiting planets, identifying promising candidates for dynamical studies and providing updated data for follow-up observations.

Contribution

It offers a systematic, large-scale TTV analysis of 423 TESS systems, classifying TTV signals and providing a comprehensive catalog for future dynamical investigations.

Findings

11 systems with significant TTVs identified

5 previously known TTV systems confirmed

10 new marginal TTV candidates discovered

Abstract

Transit Timing Variations (TTVs) are a powerful tool for detecting unseen companions in systems with known transiting exoplanets and for characterizing their masses and orbital properties. Large-scale and homogeneous TTV analyses are a valuable method to complement the demographics of planetary systems and understand the role of dynamical interactions. We present the results of a systematic TTV analysis of 423 systems covering 16000 transits, each with a single transiting planet first discovered by the TESS mission and afterwards confirmed or validated. The primary aim of this survey is to identify the most promising candidates for dynamically active systems that warrant further investigation. In the first stage of our analysis, precise measurements of the transit times are extracted for each system in an homogeneous way. In the second stage, we apply a decision framework to classify candidates by analyzing the resulting variations. Based on excess timing scatter and the difference in Bayesian Information Criterion of periodic models over linear ones, the TTVs are classified as significant, marginal, or non-detections. We find 11 systems with significant TTVs, 5 of which were announced in previous works, and 10 more systems with marginal evidence in our sample. We present 3-panel diagnostic plots for all the candidates, showing phase-folded light curves, the transit variations over time, and the variations folded on the recovered TTV period. A comprehensive summary table detailing the fitted parameters and TTV significance for the entire survey is also provided. This survey constitutes the largest homogeneous TTV analysis of TESS systems to date. We provide the community with updated ephemerides and a catalogue of high-quality TTV candidates, enabling targeted follow-up observations and dynamical modelling to uncover the nature of unseen companions and study system architectures.