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Published June 10, 2009 | Published
Journal Article Open

A Pilot Search for Population III Supernova Candidates in the Spitzer/IRAC Dark Field

Abstract

We have undertaken a systematic search for candidate supernovae from high-redshift Population III stars in a field that has been observed with repeated imaging on a cadence of 2-3 weeks over a 2.2 year baseline, the Spitzer/IRAC Dark Field. The individual epochs reach a typical 5σ depth of 1 μJy in IRAC Channel 1 (3.6 μm). Requiring a minimum of four epochs coverage, the total effective area searched is 214 arcmin^2. The unprecedented depth and multi-epochal nature of these data make it ideal for a first foray to detect transient objects which may be candidate luminous pair-instability supernovae from the primordial metallicity first stars. The search was conducted over a broad range of timescales, allowing for different durations of the putative candidates' light-curve plateau phases. All candidates were vetted by inspection of the Spitzer imaging data, as well as deep Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys F814W imaging available over the full field. While many resolved-source objects were identified with Spitzer variability, no transient objects were identified that could plausibly be identified as high-redshift supernovae candidates. The resulting 95% confidence level upper limit is 23 deg^(–2) yr^(–1), for sources with plateau timescales under 400/(1 + z) days and brightnesses above ~1 μJy.

Additional Information

© 2009 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2008 November 12; accepted 2009 April 30; published 2009 May 22. Support for this work was provided by NASA through the Spitzer Space Telescope Visiting Graduate Student Program, through a contract issued by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. The work of L.A.M. was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. This research has made use of data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program No. 10521. Support for program No. 10521 was provided by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. Support for this work was also provided by STFC studentship PPA/S/S2005/04270. L.A.M. is grateful to Tom Abel and Ranga-Ram Chary for many discussions on this topic. We also thank Seb Oliver for his useful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to the anonymous referee for comments that have helped focus and improve this report.

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August 21, 2023
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