Detectability of High-Redshift Superluminous Supernovae with Upcoming Optical and Near-Infrared Surveys

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of upcoming optical and NIR surveys to detect high-redshift superluminous supernovae, providing estimates of detection numbers and discussing their implications for understanding early universe star populations.

Contribution

It presents a detailed analysis of the detectability of high-redshift superluminous SNe with future surveys, incorporating observational calibrations and exploring survey strategies.

Findings

15-150 SNe up to z ~ 4 will be detected by Subaru/HSC survey.

Future NIR surveys could discover at least 50 SNe at z > 3 in half a year.

High-redshift SNe can be distinguished by their long light curves and redder colours.

Abstract

Observations of high-redshift supernovae (SNe) open a novel opportunity to study the massive star population in the early Universe. We study the detectability of superluminous SNe with upcoming optical and near-infrared (NIR) surveys. Our calculations are based on the cosmic star formation history, the SN occurence rate, the characteristic colour and the light curve of the SNe that are all calibrated by available observations. We show that 15-150 SNe up to z ~ 4 will be discovered by the proposed Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam deep survey: 30 deg^2 survey with 24.5 AB mag depth in z-band for 3 months. With its ultra-deep layer (3.5 deg^2 with 25.6 AB mag depth in z-band for 4 months), the highest redshift can be extended to z ~ 5. We further explore the detectability by upcoming NIR survey utilizing future satellites such as Euclid, WFIRST, and WISH. The wide-field NIR surveys are very efficient to detect high-redshift SNe. With a hypothetical deep NIR survey for 100 deg^2 with 26 AB mag depth at 1-4 um, at least ~ 50 SNe will be discovered at z>3 in half a year. The number of the detected SNe can place a strong constraint on the stellar initial mass function or its slope especially at the high-mass end. Superluminous SNe at high redshifts can be distinguished from other types of SNe by the long time-scale of their light curves in the observer's frame, the optical colours redder than other core-collapse SNe and the NIR colours redder than any other types of SNe.