Finding the first cosmic explosions. III. pulsational pair-instability supernovae

Abstract

Population III supernovae have been the focus of growing attention because of their potential to directly probe the properties of the first stars, particularly the most energetic events that can be seen at the edge of the observable universe. But until now pulsational pair-instability supernovae, in which explosive thermonuclear burning in massive stars fails to unbind them but can eject their outer layers into space, have been overlooked as cosmic beacons at the earliest redshifts. These shells can later collide and, like Type IIn supernovae, produce superluminous events in the UV at high redshifts that could be detected in the near infrared today. We present numerical simulations of a 110 M· pulsational pair-instability explosion done with the Los Alamos radiation hydrodynamics code Radiation Adaptive Grid Eulerian. We find that collisions between consecutive pulsations are visible in the near infrared out to z ; 15-20 and can probe the earliest stellar populations at cosmic dawn. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.