Type IIn Supernova Detections in z ~ 2 Lyman Break Galaxies: Probing the IMF Directly
Abstract
Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) exhibit luminous ultraviolet continua during outburst and luminous, long-lived narrow ultraviolet and optical emission lines attributed to circumstellar interaction. These properties have enabled successful detections at z ~ 2 in archival imaging and continued investigations from late-time spectroscopy. Because SNe IIn are believed to have massive (≳50M_☉) progenitors, searches in the well-studied Lyman break galaxy (LBG) host population offer the prospect of testing the form of the high-redshift stellar initial mass function (IMF) in a high density star formation environment directly. I briefly discuss our z ~ 2 photometric detection method targeting LBGs in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) and present data from the first 6 confirmed z ~ 2 SNe IIn pulled from 30 photometric SN candidates. A comparison of the color and magnitude distributions of the SN host galaxies to that of the full LBG sample finds that z ~ 2 SNe preferentially occur in bluer, fainter galaxies. I conclude with a discussion of an approach that uses the CFHTLS pilot sample to provide a first estimate of the form of the high-redshift IMF. Upcoming deep synoptic imaging surveys will greatly improve z ~ 2 SNe IIn statistics from ~10^5 expected detections and future large aperture space- and ground-based telescopes will have the sensitivities to extend this work to z ≳ 6.
Additional Information
© 2011 Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.Attached Files
Published - Cooke2011p13932Up2010_Have_Observations_Revealed_A_Variable_Upper_End_Of_The_Initial_Mass_Function.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:5f856edf04428c8a16365f64d80e1e6d
|
493.9 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 24172
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110622-152037317
- Created
-
2011-06-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2019-11-22Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Space Astrophysics Laboratory
- Series Name
- ASP Conference Series
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 440