A new photometric ephemeris for the 2M1510 AB double brown dwarf eclipsing binary system

ABSTRACT Eclipsing brown dwarfs are important calibrators of substellar evolution models used to infer the characteristics of directly imaged brown dwarfs and giant exoplanets. Only two double brown dwarf eclipsing binary systems are known, among them 2MASS J15104786−2818174 (2M1510 AB), published in 2020 with a poorly constrained orbital period. Here, we analyse the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) full-frame image photometry of this faint ($T_\mathrm{mag}=15.9$) binary and detect a significant (${>}10 \sigma$) periodic signal spanning TESS Cycles 1–7, consistent with previous data. We refine the orbital period to $20.897782 \pm 0.000036$ d, reducing its present-day uncertainty from 18 h to 8 min. Our work is crucial for scheduling follow-up observations of this system for a detailed study with other photometric facilities. We also find that a recent orbital solution from Doppler data is inconsistent with existing photometry. A timing offset in the Doppler data may have produced a spurious signal mimicking retrograde apsidal precession, from which the claimed circumbinary planet 2M1510 ABb was inferred. From our best attempt at correcting the data, we were unable to reconcile the radial velocity data with the photometry, suggesting that the radial velocity uncertainties are underestimated, and that the circumbinary planet 2M1510 ABb may be a false positive.