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Published September 13, 2012 | Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

On Advanced Estimation Techniques for Exoplanet Detection and Characterization Using Ground-based Coronagraphs

Abstract

The direct imaging of planets around nearby stars is exceedingly difficult. Only about 14 exoplanets have been imaged to date that have masses less than 13 times that of Jupiter. The next generation of planet-finding coronagraphs, including VLT-SPHERE, the Gemini Planet Imager, Palomar P1640, and Subaru HiCIAO have predicted contrast performance of roughly a thousand times less than would be needed to detect Earth-like planets. In this paper we review the state of the art in exoplanet imaging, most notably the method of Locally Optimized Combination of Images (LOCI), and we investigate the potential of improving the detectability of faint exoplanets through the use of advanced statistical methods based on the concepts of the ideal observer and the Hotelling observer. We propose a formal comparison of techniques using a blind data challenge with an evaluation of performance using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) and Localization ROC (LROC) curves. We place particular emphasis on the understanding and modeling of realistic sources of measurement noise in ground-based AO-corrected coronagraphs. The work reported in this paper is the result of interactions between the co-authors during a week-long workshop on exoplanet imaging that was held in Squaw Valley, California, in March of 2012.

Additional Information

© 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). This work was undertaken with support of a seed grant from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative. Work at the University of Arizona was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health under grant no. 2R01EB000803-21. The authors are extremely grateful for data for Figure 1 provided by the following individuals: Markus Kasper (ESO)for ELT-EPICS; John Krist (JPL/Caltech) for JWST NIRCam and HST/ACS curves; Bruce Macintosh (UC Santa Cruz) for TMT PFI data; Christian Marois (HIA, NRC) for the K-band data for Keck NIRC2; Dimitri Mawet (ESO) for the K-band data for VLT-NACO, and the H-band curve for the Palomar Well-Corrected Sub-aperture; GPI data downloaded from planetimager.org, corresponding to predictions by McBride; Dino Mesa (INAF) for the data for the Integral Field Spectrograph of VLT-SPHERE;28 and Ben Oppenheimer (AMNH) for the curve for Project 1640. Figure 1 was partly inspired by a previous illustration by Wesley Traub and John Trauger (JPL). This work was partly conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Reference in this paper to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.

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