Assessing the Impact of High-Resolution Imaging on Statistical Validation of TESS Planet Candidates

Authors:Michael Collier, Steven Giacalone, Brian Derfer, David R. Ciardi, Catherine A. Clark, Ian J. M. Crossfield, Sarah Deveny, Sergio B. Fajardo-Acosta, Elise Furlan, Emily A. Gilbert, Steve B. Howell, Adam L. Kraus, Rachel A. Matson, Joshua E. Schlieder, Julian C. van Eyken, David Baker, Khalid Barkaoui, Özgür Baştürk, Mario Basilicata, Izuru Fukuda, Akihiko Fukui, Mourad Ghachoui, Michaël Gillon, Emmanuel Jehin, Jerome de Leon, Luigi Mancini, Francesca Manni, Gabriel Murawski, Bob Massey, Luca Naponiello, Norio Narita, Justus Randolph, Roberto Zambelli, Richard P. Schwarz, Abderahmane Soubkiou, Gregor Srdoc, Chris Stockdale, Toshi Suganuma, Jiaqi Wang, Francis P. Wilkin, Selçuk Yalçınkaya View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:High-resolution imaging is widely used to constrain false-positive scenarios in exoplanet validation, but it is a finite follow-up resource that reaches only a subset of candidates, and its population-level impact on validation outcomes has not been quantified through controlled removal experiments. Using an automated pipeline built on TRICERATOPS, we compute the false-positive probability (FPP) of 443 TESS planet candidates. For the 264 planet candidates with high-resolution imaging observations, we compute FPP with and without the corresponding contrast curves, allowing us to quantify the impact of the additional data. We find that 72% of 68 contrast-curve bearing validated planets would fail validation without their adopted contrast curves. The fraction requiring imaging decreases with increasing planet size, from 100% below $1.7~R_\oplus$ to $33\%$ above $4~R_\oplus$: within our sample and TRICERATOPS-based analysis, the availability of high-resolution imaging directly limits the yield of small-planet validation and the supply of validated targets for atmospheric characterization. Our analysis statistically validates 64 new TESS planets with sizes spanning 0.94 to 7.83 $R_\oplus$ across hosts of spectral type M through F. Four of these are highly amenable to JWST observations based on the transmission and emission spectroscopy metrics, and each achieves validation only with its imaging constraint. Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) Cite as: arXiv:2608.21560 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2608.21560v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.21560 arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Steven Giacalone [view email] [v1] Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:51:06 UTC (570 KB)