| |
 |
| Paper: |
Type IIn Supernova Detections in z∼2 Lyman Break Galaxies: Probing the IMF Directly |
| Volume: |
440, UP2010: Have Observations Revealed a Variable Upper End of the Initial Mass Function? |
| Page: |
337 |
| Authors: |
Cooke, J.; Sullivan, M.; Barton, E. J.; Ellis, R. S.; Gal-Yam, A. |
| 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 ∼105 expected
detections and future large aperture space- and ground-based
telescopes will have the sensitivities to extend this work to
≳6. |
|
|
|
|
|
