Bibcode
Mori, Mayuko; Fukui, Akihiko; Hirano, Teruyuki; Narita, Norio; Livingston, John H.; Barkaoui, Khalid; Collins, Karen A.; de Leon, Jerome P.; Ikuta, Kai; Kawai, Yugo; Schwarz, Richard P.; Shporer, Avi; Srdoc, Gregor
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal
Advertised on:
10
2025
Citations
3
Refereed citations
3
Description
Spot-crossing transits offer a unique opportunity to probe spot properties such as temperature, size, and surface distribution. TOI-3884 is a rare system in which spot-crossing features are persistently observed during every transit. This is due to its unusual configuration: a nearly polar-orbit super-Neptune transits a pole-on mid-M dwarf, repeatedly crossing a polar spot. However, previous studies have reported discrepant values in key system parameters, such as stellar inclination and obliquity. To address this, we conducted multiband, multiepoch transit observations of TOI-3884 b using the MuSCAT instrument series, along with photometric monitoring with the Las Cumbres Observatory 1 m telescopes/Sinistro. We detected time-dependent variations in the spot-crossing signals, indicating that the spot is not exactly on the pole. From the monitoring data, we measured a stellar rotation period of 11.043‑0.053+0.054 days with a modulation amplitude of ∼5% in the r band, consistent with the time variability in the spot-crossing features. Our analysis reconciles previous discrepancies and improves the constraints on the parameters of the system geometry ( i⋆=139.9‑2.0+1.2 deg and λ=41.0‑9.0+3.7 deg) and those of the spot properties (spot radius of 0.425‑0.011+0.018R⋆ and a spot–photosphere temperature difference of 200‑9+11 K). These results provide a critical context for interpreting upcoming transmission spectroscopy of TOI-3884 b, as well as yielding new insights into the magnetic activity and spin–orbit geometry of M dwarfs.
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