Beacons In the Dark: Using Novae and Supernovae to Detect Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Universe

Abstract

We propose that luminous transients, including novae and supernovae, can be used to detect the faintest galaxies in the universe. Beyond a few Mpc, dwarf galaxies with stellar masses $<10^6{M}_{\odot }$ will likely be too faint and/or too low in surface brightness to be directly detected in upcoming large area ground-based photometric surveys. However, single epoch LSST photometry will be able to detect novae to distances of $\sim 30$ Mpc and SNe to Gpc-scale distances. Depending on the form of the stellar mass-halo mass relation and the underlying star formation histories of low mass dwarfs, the expected nova rates will be a few to $\sim 100$ yr${}^{-1}$ and the expected SN rates (including both type Ia and core-collapse) will be $\sim 10^2-10^4$ within the observable ($4\pi$ sr) volume. The transient rate associated with intrahalo stars will be comparably large, but these transients will be located close to bright galaxies, in contrast to the dwarfs, which should trace the underlying large scale structure of the cosmic web. Aggressive follow-up of hostless transients has the potential to uncover the predicted enormous population of low mass field dwarf galaxies.

5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to ApJL

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• Estimating the GeV Emission of Millisecond Pulsars in Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Confirmation of Hostless Type Ia Supernovae Using Hubble Space Telescope Imaging
• Rapidly-Declining Hostless Type Ia Supernova KSP-OT-201509b from the KMTNet Supernova Program: Transitional Nature and Constraint on ${}^{56}$Ni Distribution and Progenitor Type
• On the Origins of "Hostless'' Supernovae: Testing the Faint-end Galaxy Luminosity Function and Supernova Progenitors with Events in Dwarf Galaxies