Published October 2022 | Version public
Journal Article

Euclid: Searching for pair-instability supernovae with the Deep Survey

Abstract

Pair-instability supernovae are theorized supernovae that have not yet been observationally confirmed. They are predicted to exist in low-metallicity environments. Because overall metallicity becomes lower at higher redshifts, deep near-infrared transient surveys probing high-redshift supernovae are suitable to discover pair-instability supernovae. The Euclid satellite, which is planned launch in 2023, has a near-infrared wide-field instrument that is suitable for a high-redshift supernova survey. The Euclid Deep Survey is planned to make regular observations of three Euclid Deep Fields (40 deg² in total) spanning Euclid's six-year primary mission period. While the observations of the Euclid Deep Fields are not frequent, we show that the predicted long duration of pair-instability supernovae would allow us to search for high-redshift pair-instability supernovae with the Euclid Deep Survey. Based on the current observational plan of the Euclid mission, we conduct survey simulations in order to estimate the expected numbers of pair-instability supernova discoveries. We find that up to several hundred pair-instability supernovae at z ≲ 3.5 can be discovered within the Euclid Deep Survey. We also show that pair-instability supernova candidates can be efficiently identified by their duration and color, which can be determined with the current Euclid Deep Survey plan. We conclude that the Euclid mission can lead to the first confirmation of pair-instability supernovae if their event rates are as high as those predicted by recent theoretical studies. We also update the expected numbers of superluminous supernova discoveries in the Euclid Deep Survey based on the latest observational plan.

Additional Information

TJM thanks Mitsuru Kokubo for helpful discussions. TJM is supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP18K13585, JP20H00174, JP21K13966, JP21H04997). This work was supported by JSPS Core-to-Core Program (JPJSCCA20210003). This research has made use of the SVO Filter Profile Service (http://svo2.cab.inta-csic.es/theory/fps/) supported from the Spanish MINECO through grant AYA2017-84089. The Euclid Consortium acknowledges the European Space Agency and a number of agencies and institutes that have supported the development of Euclid, in particular the Academy of Finland, the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, the Belgian Science Policy, the Canadian Euclid Consortium, the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, the Danish Space Research Institute, the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the Netherlandse Onderzoekschool Voor Astronomie, the Norwegian Space Agency, the Romanian Space Agency, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) at the Swiss Space Office (SSO), and the United Kingdom Space Agency. A complete and detailed list is available on the Euclid web site (http://www.euclid-ec.org).

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
117809
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20221109-552977300.11

Funding

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP18K13585
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP20H00174
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP21K13966
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JP21H04997
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
JPJSCCA20210003
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO)
AyA2017-84089
European Space Agency (ESA)
Academy of Finland
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI)
Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO)
Canadian Euclid Consortium
Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES)
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Danish Space Research Institute
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCINN)
NASA
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)
Norwegian Space Agency
Romanian Space Agency
State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)
Swiss Space Office (SSO)
United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA)

Dates

Created
2022-11-23
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-11-28
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

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