Searches for population III pair-instability supernovae: Predictions for ULTIMATE-Subaru and WFIRST

Takashi J. Moriya, Kenneth C. Wong, Yusei Koyama, Masaomi Tanaka, Masamune Oguri, Stefan Hilbert, Ken’ichi Nomoto

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

ULTIMATE-Subaru (Ultra-wide Laser Tomographic Imager and MOS with AO for Transcendent Exploration on Subaru) and WFIRST (Wide Field Infra-Red Survey Telescope) are the next generation of near-infrared instruments that have a large field-of-view. They allow us to conduct deep and wide transient surveys in the near-infrared. Such a near-infrared transient survey enables us to find very distant supernovae that are red-shifted to the near-infrared wavelengths. We have performed mock transient surveys with ULTIMATE-Subaru and WFIRST to investigate their ability to discover Population III pair-instability supernovae. We found that a five-year 1 deg2 K-band transient survey with a point-source limiting magnitude of 26.5 mag with ULTIMATE-Subaru may find about two Population III pair-instability supernovae beyond the redshift of 6. A five-year 10 deg2 survey with WFIRST reaching 26.5 mag in the F184 band may find about seven Population III pair-instability supernovae beyond the redshift of 6. We also find that the expected numbers of the Population III pair-instability supernova detections increase by about a factor of 2 if the near-infrared transient surveys are performed towards clusters of galaxies. Other supernovae, such as Population II pair-instability supernovae, would also be detected in the same survey. This study demonstrates that these future widefield near-infrared instruments allow us to investigate the explosions of first- generation supernovae by performing deep and wide near-infrared transient surveys.

Original languageEnglish
Article number59
JournalPublications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
Volume71
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019 Jun 1

Keywords

  • Stars: Population III
  • Stars: massive
  • Supernovae: general

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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