Long-term Orbital Period Variation of Hot Jupiters from Transit Timing Analysis using TESS Survey Data

Many hot Jupiters may experience orbital decays, which are manifested as long-term transit timing variations. We have analyzed 7068 transits from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) for a sample of 326 hot Jupiters. These new mid-transit time data allow us to update ephemerides for these systems. By combining the new TESS transit timing data with archival data, we search for possible long-term orbital period variations in these hot Jupiters using a linear and a quadratic ephemeris model. We identified 26 candidates that exhibit possible long-term orbital period variations, including 18 candidates with decreasing orbital periods and 8 candidates with increasing orbital periods. Among them, 12 candidates have failed in our leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) test and thus should be considered as marginal candidates. In addition to tidal interaction, alternative mechanisms such as apsidal precession, Rømer effect, and Applegate effect could also contribute to the observed period variations. The ephemerides derived in this work are useful for scheduling follow-up observations for these hot Jupiters in the future. The Python code (PdotQuest) used to generate the ephemerides is made available online.