Unresolved binaries in TESS with speckle imaging

To facilitate studies of planet compositions and atmospheric properties, accurate and precise planetary radii need to be derived from the transit light curves. Since 40%-50% of exoplanet host stars are in multiple star systems, however, the observed transit depth may be diluted by the flux of a companion star, causing the radius of the planet to be underestimated.

High angular resolution imaging can detect companion stars that are not resolved in the TESS Input Catalog, or by seeing-limited photometry, to validate exoplanet candidates and derive accurate planetary radii. We examine the population of stellar companions that will be detectable around TESS planet candidate host stars, and those that will remain undetected, by applying the detection limits of speckle imaging to the simulated host star populations of Sullivan et al. (2015, J/ApJ/809/77) and Barclay et al. (2018, J/ApJS/239/2).