Probing the stellar initial mass function with high-$z$ supernovae

Abstract

The first supernovae will soon be visible at the edge of the observable universe, revealing the birthplaces of Population III stars. With upcoming near-infrared missions, a broad analysis of the detectability of high-$z$ supernovae is paramount. We combine cosmological and radiation transport simulations, instrument specifications, and survey strategies to create synthetic observations of primeval core-collapse, Type IIn and pair-instability supernovae with the James Webb Space Telescope ($JWST$). We show that a dedicated observational campaign with the $JWST$ can detect up to $\sim 15$ pair-instability explosions, $\sim 300$ core-collapse supernovae, but less than one Type IIn explosion per year, depending on the Population III star formation history. Our synthetic survey also shows that $\approx 1-2\times 10^2$ supernovae detections, depending on the accuracy of the classification, are sufficient to discriminate between a Salpeter and flat mass distribution for high redshift stars with a confidence level greater than 99.5 per cent. We discuss how the purity of the sample affects our results and how supervised learning methods may help to discriminate between CC and PI SNe.

17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (33)

• The Dawes Review 8: Measuring the Stellar Initial Mass Function
• Preserving chemical signatures of primordial star formation in the first low-mass stars
• The critical dark matter halo mass for Population III star formation: dependence on Lyman-Werner radiation, baryon-dark matter streaming velocity, and redshift
• Pair Instability Supernovae of Very Massive Population III Stars
• Imaging the redshifted 21-cm pattern around the first sources during the cosmic dawn using the SKA
• Public Release of A-SLOTH: Ancient Stars and Local Observables by Tracing Halos
• Grids of stellar models with rotation: V. Models from 1.7 to 120 Msun at zero metallicity
• A New Statistical Model for Population III Supernova Rates: Discriminating Between $\Lambda$CDM and WDM Cosmologies
• Detection strategies for the first supernovae with JWST
• Emission from Pair-Instability Supernovae with Rotation
• Pair-Instability Supernovae in the Local Universe
• Primordial star clusters at extreme magnification
• Exploring the spectroscopic diversity of type Ia supernovae with DRACULA: a machine learning approach
• How the First Stars Regulated Star Formation. II. Enrichment by Nearby Supernovae
• 21-cm signature of the first sources in the Universe: Prospects of detection with SKA
• Low-energy Population III supernovae and the origin of extremely metal-poor stars
• Population III Hypernovae
• Finding the First Cosmic Explosions. IV. 90 - 140 M${}_{\odot }$ Pair-Instability Supernovae
• Probing the initial mass function of the first stars with transients
• Detecting Pair-Instability Supernovae at z<5 with the James Webb Space Telescope
• Detecting strongly lensed supernovae at z ~ 5-7 with LSST
• Searches for Population III pair-instability supernovae: Predictions for ULTIMATE-Subaru and WFIRST
• A-SLOTH reveals the nature of the first stars
• Fates of the oldest intermediate-mass stars - Primordial to Extremely Metal-Poor AGB and Super-AGB Stars: White Dwarf or Supernova progenitors
• The THESAN-ZOOM project: Population III star formation continues until the end of reionization
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• Extreme Primordial Star Formation Enabled by High Redshift Quasars
• Modeling the survival of Population III stars till present day
• Searches for Population III Pair-Instability Supernovae: Impact of Gravitational Lensing Magnification
• Probing individual sources during reionization and cosmic dawn using SKA HI 21-cm observations
• Effects of chemically homogeneous evolution of the first stars on the 21-cm signal and reionization
• The End of Galaxy Surveys
• AMADA-Analysis of Multidimensional Astronomical Datasets