nm (bottom) filters. Squares and points on left panel represent local maxima and local minima, respectively. []{data-label="fig:speckle"}](figures/TOI134_f1ab.png)

Observations of L 168-9 were conducted with the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI; @Horch2009) on Gemini South, Chile, on UT 28 October 2018 under program GS-2018B-LP-101 (PI: I. Crossfield). The usual 692 nm and 880 nm filters on DSSI were used, and three sequences of 60 ms/frame$\times$1000 frames were taken. The total time on target, including readout overhead, was six minutes. [@Howell2011], [@Horch2011a], and [@Horch2012] detail the speckle observing and data reduction procedures. The detection limit curves are shown in Figure \[fig:speckle\]. While the 692 nm image was taken at too low of gain, leading to a shallow detection limit, the 880 nm detection limit curve ($b$) in Figure \[fig:speckle\] indicates that L 168-9 lacks any companions of $\Delta m \sim$5.0 mag beyond 0.1 and any companions of $\Delta m \sim$5.5 mag beyond 0.2. Gemini-South and SOAR result (Sect. \[subsubsec:soar\]) mean the transit signal is likely to be associated with L 168-9.

Thus, we conclude that there is no significant contamination of the TESS photometric aperture that would bias the determination of the planet radius. The Sinistro data (Sect. \[subsubsec:groundphot\]) rule out surrounding 