Paper
At the stellar noise frontier: a transit survey of 121 TESS M3--M6 dwarfs
Authors
Yohann Tschudi
Abstract
M-dwarf stars are the most favorable hosts for detecting small transiting planets, yet mid-to-late M-dwarfs that acquired sufficient TESS multi-sector coverage only through recent Cycle 6+ observations represent a newly accessible discovery space. This paper presents a systematic transit survey of 121 M3-M6 dwarfs (Teff = 2700-3400 K) selected as "newly enabled" targets -- stars with <=2 archival TESS sectors that only recently crossed the multi-sector detection threshold, covering P = 0.5-100 d. The sample was selected from 498,312 TIC M-dwarfs via a 9-step funnel. The pipeline combines TLS with a signal validation cascade, TRICERATOPS vetting, Gaia DR3 verification, and three empirical signal reliability tests. Pipeline validation achieved 100% recovery (16/16 planets) on 10 known systems with zero false positives. The survey identifies 20 transit-like signals across 16 systems, none with prior TOI designations. The reliability framework classifies 2 as Tier 1 (High Robustness), 7 as Tier 2 (Moderate), and 10 as Tier 3 (Noise-Susceptible); one monotransit is excluded. No candidate SDE significantly exceeds its host star's noise floor. The global false alarm rate is 17.4% (21/121; Wilson 95% CI: [11.6%, 25.1%]).The 2 Tier 1 candidates are priorities for RV confirmation. The 10 Tier 3 candidates require additional TESS sectors to establish signal persistence; 9 systems need high-resolution imaging.
Metadata
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Raw Data (Debug)
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"raw_xml": "<entry>\n <id>http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10247v1</id>\n <title>At the stellar noise frontier: a transit survey of 121 TESS M3--M6 dwarfs</title>\n <updated>2026-03-10T21:51:56Z</updated>\n <link href='https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10247v1' rel='alternate' type='text/html'/>\n <link href='https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.10247v1' rel='related' title='pdf' type='application/pdf'/>\n <summary>M-dwarf stars are the most favorable hosts for detecting small transiting planets, yet mid-to-late M-dwarfs that acquired sufficient TESS multi-sector coverage only through recent Cycle 6+ observations represent a newly accessible discovery space. This paper presents a systematic transit survey of 121 M3-M6 dwarfs (Teff = 2700-3400 K) selected as \"newly enabled\" targets -- stars with <=2 archival TESS sectors that only recently crossed the multi-sector detection threshold, covering P = 0.5-100 d. The sample was selected from 498,312 TIC M-dwarfs via a 9-step funnel. The pipeline combines TLS with a signal validation cascade, TRICERATOPS vetting, Gaia DR3 verification, and three empirical signal reliability tests. Pipeline validation achieved 100% recovery (16/16 planets) on 10 known systems with zero false positives. The survey identifies 20 transit-like signals across 16 systems, none with prior TOI designations. The reliability framework classifies 2 as Tier 1 (High Robustness), 7 as Tier 2 (Moderate), and 10 as Tier 3 (Noise-Susceptible); one monotransit is excluded. No candidate SDE significantly exceeds its host star's noise floor. The global false alarm rate is 17.4% (21/121; Wilson 95% CI: [11.6%, 25.1%]).The 2 Tier 1 candidates are priorities for RV confirmation. The 10 Tier 3 candidates require additional TESS sectors to establish signal persistence; 9 systems need high-resolution imaging.</summary>\n <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='astro-ph.EP'/>\n <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='astro-ph.IM'/>\n <category scheme='http://arxiv.org/schemas/atom' term='astro-ph.SR'/>\n <published>2026-03-10T21:51:56Z</published>\n <arxiv:comment>18 pages, 5 figures, 24 tables. Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics</arxiv:comment>\n <arxiv:primary_category term='astro-ph.EP'/>\n <author>\n <name>Yohann Tschudi</name>\n </author>\n </entry>"
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