Monday, June 24, 2013

1306.4984 (R. S. de Souza et al.)

Detectability of the First Cosmic Explosions    [PDF]

R. S. de Souza, E. E. O. Ishida, J. L. Johnson, D. J. Whalen, A. Mesinger
We present a fully self-consistent simulation of a synthetic survey from the furthermost cosmic explosions. The appearance of the first generation of stars (Pop III) in the Universe represents a critical point during cosmic evolution signaling the end of the dark ages, a period of absence of light sources. Despite their importance, there is no confirmed detection of Pop III stars so far. A fraction of these primordial stars are expected to die as pair-instability supernovae (PISN), and should be bright enough to be observed up to a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. While the quest for Pop III stars continues, detailed theoretical models and computer simulations serve as a testbed for their observability. With the upcoming near-infrared missions, estimates of the feasibility of detecting PISN are not only timely but imperative. To address this problem, we combine state of art cosmological and radiative simulations into a complete and self-consistent framework which includes detailed features of the observational process. We show that a dedicated observational strategy using $\lesssim 8%$ of total allocation time of the \textit{James Webb Space Telescope} mission can provide us up to $\sim 9-15$ detectable PISN per year.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1306.4984

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