IV

This page details the needed information for each participant and implemented method. Additionally, we describe what data products should be submitted as part of the "results" and how to name and format these files.

The next submission deadline is: October 31, 2025
For this submission, please upload method details and results to your team's folder where the data is stored.

Summary

Here is a cheat sheet of all information that will be requested and their required file names. The icons link to example files pre-filled with the required standard column headers and an example row.

We are starting in May 2025 with an initial data release so that the later full analysis will run more smoothly. The shared data products are produced by an ESSP pipeline designed to standardize data between the four instruments and inject Keplerian signals. This data will therefore differ in notable ways from the data typically provided by each instrument team.

We truly appreciate everyone volunteering their time for this project, and so participation in this initial round is optional. Providing this feedback, though, will be the best way to ensure the final data products are suitable for your method needs.

Requested Feedback

For the initial data products, we are not asking that teams produce robust, final results. Instead, we ask for feedback on whether the provided data is sufficient for each method to be implemented as intended. Such feedback, on the level of "data is good!" or "such-and-such changes needed", should be e-mailed to lilylingzhao[at]uchicago.edu by June 13, 2025.

Some specific things that would be helpful to consider include:

1. Is the proliferation of NaN values in the data likely to negatively impact method implementation and/or performance?
2. How difficult will it be to adapt the method to run on data from four different instruments (either on each instrument independently or all instruments together)?
3. Are there any other unexpected peculiarities noted within the provided data products?

Differences Between Initial and Full Data Sets

The initial data set features one data set spanning a month (May 25 - June 23, 2021) with three observations per “night” per instrument. The full analysis for ESSP IV will involve nine data sets to be released in July 2025. Each data set, with the exception of HARPS, will span approximately three months (March 23 - June 23, 2021).

Any other data changes will be highlighted on the data description page ahead of the full data release.

Required File Name: <<Group Name>>_members.csv
A file pre-filled with the requested column names can be accessed here:

Each team should provide a CSV file with the following columns for each group member. The provided information should reflect how participants wish the information to appear in a published report.

• Name
• E-Mail
• ORCID iD
• Affiliation
• Affiliation2

Additional, numbered affiliation columns can be added as needed. Needed acknowledgements will be requested at a later stage.

An example submission would look as follows:

Required File Name: <<Group Name>>_methods.csv
A file pre-filled with the requested column names can be accessed here:

Each group should provide some basic information on the methods they intend to employ in a CSV file. Groups employing multiple methods should submit just one file with a different row for each method. Any method or method variation yielding distinct results (i.e., worth being analyzed separately) should be given a separate row.

The requested basic information is as follows:

• Name: a full, descriptive name for each method, i.e. what would be used to refer to this method in a paper
• Nick Name: a shorter, file-name friendly version (e.g. no spaces, special characters, etc.) to be incorporated into various submitted files
• Contact: the e-mail of who to best contact for questions about this method; likely the person who will be doing the majority of the work implementing the method
• Input: list all data products required by the method
• Recalculated: list any data products that were re-calculated for the method—i.e., any data product for which the provided values were not used
• Run On: the class of device that the method was run on—e.g. laptop, desktop, cluster (and please specify number of nodes, GPUs, etc.), other
• Run Time: the order of magnitude unit it takes the method to finish running when using the device specified in the “Run On” column—e.g. seconds, hours, etc.
• Citation: if the method is described in a publication, please provide the relevant ADS link

An example of how this data will be compiled can be found in Table 6 of the ESSP II report.

An example submission would look as follows:

For each method, please also prepare a brief (i.e. a few sentence) description of the method. These descriptions will be used to get an initial idea of what is being implemented, identify possible collaborations between teams, and group potentially similar methods.

Please include these descriptions when e-mailing the Team Information and Method Basics tables to lilylingzhao[at]uchicago.edu.

Required File Name: <<Group Name>>_<<Method Name>>.tex/docx/txt

We also request more detailed information on each method to be submitted with the final results. These detailed questions are organized into sections focused on (1) a general description of the method, (2) the data requirements for the method, (3) the process of applying the method, and (4) the outputs of the method. Some questions may not be relevant or are repetitive for your method/answers, in which case a short answer or a "N/A" are appropriate answers.

The questions to be answered are listed here. Please download and fill out one of the following templates in the file format of your choice to submit answers. Submit a separate file for each method.

• LaTeX
• Microsoft Word
• Plain Text

RVs and Indicators

Required File Name: <<Data Set>>_<<Group Name>>_<<Method Name>>_results.csv
A file pre-filled with the requested column names can be accessed here:

All RVs should be given in units of m/s.

We ask that all methods submit results using the provided standardized data products. If you would also like to test your methods on custom generated data products, please submit those results in addition to results using the standardized data products.

Each method must at minimum provide cleaned RVs, RV_C, and corresponding errors, eRV_C. These “cleaned RVs” are defined as publication ready RVs. For instance, if you were conducting a planet search, the RV_C values are what that search would be performed on.

If available, methods should also provide activity RVs, RV_A, and corresponding errors, eRV_A. These “activity RVs” are defined broadly as shifts attributed to stellar activity/variability or other signals that have been removed by the method. For methods that do not return separate activity RVs, we will assume that the activity RVs are the residuals from the cleaned RVs.

In other words, if we denote the provided RVs as RV_⊙, we make the assumption that:
RV_⊙ = RV_C + RV_A
Where RV_C deviates from zero only due to injected planet shifts and intrinsic scatter.

For methods that derive any category of activity indicator, we ask that the value of the indicators be provided along with errors if possible. Please be sure to specify the unit of the indicator in the column header if it exists.

File Details

• Each file should contain a Time [eMJD] column that exactly mirrors the time stamps of the provided data set.
• It would be helpful, though not necessary, to include "Standard File Name" as a column as well.
• There should be a row for every observation provided, even if there exists outliers or missing values.
• Observations across all four instruments should be combined into a single CSV file for each data set.

The first row of an example submission would look as follows:

Best-Fit Planet Parameters

Required File Name for Fit: <<Data Set>>_<<Group Name>>_<<Method Name>>_planetFit.csv
Required File Name for Posteriors: <<Data Set>>_<<Group Name>>_<<Method Name>>_planetFitPosteriors.csv

A file pre-filled with the requested column names for best-fit planet parameters can be accessed here:

All provided cleaned RVs will be processed using the same planet-fitting pipeline in order to establish a consistent baseline comparison of Keplerian signals present in the returned data.

Methods that employ joint or otherwise custom planet fitting are asked to also return their best-fit system parameters. If applicable, please also submit the posteriors for this planet fit. For these submissions, please submit a CSV file with a row for each planet reporting the following parameters.

• K [m/s]: semi-amplitude in m/s
• P [d]: period in days
• t0 [eMJD]: time of periastron in eMJD
• e: eccentricity
• w [deg]: argument of periastron in degrees

An example submission would look as follows:

Auxiliary Data

Required File Name for Hyperparameters: <<Data Set>>_<<Group Name>>_<<Method Name>>_hyperparameters.csv
Required File Name for Posteriors: <<Data Set>>_<<Group Name>>_<<Method Name>>_hyperparametersPosteriors.csv

If the method is GP based, we ask that you submit your best-fit hyperparameters and any associated priors. Please describe what is contained in these files within the detailed method questions (question 4.4).