As planning for the next generation of high contrast imaging instruments (e.g. WFIRST, HabEx, and LUVOIR, TMT-PFI, EELT-EPICS) matures, and second-generation ground-based extreme adaptive optics facilities (e.g. VLT-SPHERE, Gemini-GPI) are halfway through their principal surveys, it is imperative that the performance of different designs, post-processing algorithms, observing strategies, and survey results be compared in a consistent, statistically robust framework. In this paper, we argue that the current industry standard for such comparisons -- the contrast curve -- falls short of this mandate. We propose a new figure of merit, the "performance map," that incorporates three fundamental concepts in signal detection theory: the true positive fraction (TPF), false positive fraction (FPF), and detection threshold. By supplying a theoretical basis and recipe for generating the performance map, we hope to encourage the widespread adoption of this new metric across subfields in exoplanet imaging.
@article{arxiv.1711.01215,
title = {A New Standard for Assessing the Performance of High Contrast Imaging Systems},
author = {Rebecca Jensen-Clem and Dimitri Mawet and Carlos A. Gomez Gonzalez and Olivier Absil and Ruslan Belikov and Thayne Currie and Matthew A. Kenworthy and Christian Marois and Johan Mazoyer and Garreth Ruane and Angelle Tanner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.01215},
year = {2017}
}