Pair-instability and super-luminous supernova discoveries at z = 2.05, z = 2.50, and z = 3.90

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Title: Pair-instability and super-luminous supernova discoveries at z = 2.05, z = 2.50, and z = 3.90
Author(s): Cooke, Jeff; Sullivan, Mark; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Carlberg, Raymond G.; Ellis, Richard S.; Barton, Elizabeth J.; Ryan-Weber, Emma V.; Horst, Chuck; Omori, Yuuki; Diaz, C. Gonzalo
Abstract: We present the discovery of three super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe) at z = 2 - 4 as part of our survey to detect ultraviolet-luminous supernova at z > 2. SLSNe are ≥10 times more luminous than normal supernova types, reaching peak luminosities of ≳1044 erg s−1. A small subset of SLSNe (type SLSN-R) exhibit a slow evolution, and thus enormous integrated energies (≳1051 erg), consistent with the radiative decay of several solar masses of 56Ni. SLSN-R are believed to be the deaths of very massive stars, ∼140 - 260 M☉, that are theorized to result in pair-instability supernovae. Two of the high redshift SLSNe presented here are consistent with the behavior of SLSN-R out to the extent in which their light curves are sampled, with the third event being consistent with the more rapid fade of the type II-L SLSN SN 2008es at z = 0.205. SLSNe are extremely rare locally but are expected to have been more common in the early Universe and as members of the first generation of stars to form after the Big Bang, the Population III stars. The high intrinsic luminosity of SLSNe and their detectability using our image-stacking technique out to z ∼ 6 provide the first viable route to detect and study the deaths of massive Population III stars which are expected to form in pristine gas at redshifts as low as z ∼ 2.
Publication type: Conference paper
Source: AIP Conference Proceedings: proceedings of 'From Hayashi to the Future', the First Stars IV Conference, Kyoto, Japan, 21-25 May 2012 / Masayuki Umemura and Kazuyuki Omukai (eds.), Vol. 1480, pp. 200-203
Publication year: 2012
Keyword(s): Pair-instability supernovae; Super-luminous supernovae
Publisher: American Institute of Physics
ISSN: 0094-243X (series ISSN)
ISBN: 9780735410923, 0735410925
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4754355
Peer reviewed