High-z core-collapse supernova survey with shock breakout

Abstract

Type II-plateau supernovae (SNe II-P) have so far been observed only at z < 1. We propose a distant SN II-P survey at z > 1 with shock breakout, that is the brightest radiative phenomenon in a supernova (SN). The first observation of shock breakout from the rising phase is reported in 2008. We construct a theoretical model reproducing the UV-optical light curves (LCs) of the first example and demonstrate that the peak apparent g-band magnitude of the shock breakout would be mg ∼ 26.5 mag if an identical SN occurs at a redshift z = 1, which can be reached by 8m-class telescopes. Furthermore, we present LCs of shock breakout of SN explosions with various main-sequence masses and derive the observable SN rate and reachable redshift as functions of limiting magnitude. The g-band observable SN rate with limiting magnitude 27.5 mag is 3.3 SNe deg−2 day−1 and half of them are located at z > 1.2. It is clear that the shock breakout is a beneficial clue to probe high-z core-collapse SNe.