Rates and redshift distribution of high-z supernovae

Abstract

Using observed star formation rates at redshifts up to z ~ 5, we calculate cosmic supernova rates for core collapse and Type Ia supernovae. Together with supernova statistics and detailed light curves, we estimate the number of supernovae, and their distribution in redshift, that should be detectable in different filters with various instruments, including both existing and future telescopes, in particular the NGST. We find that the NGST should detect several tens of core collapse supernovae in a single frame. Most of these will be core collapse supernovae with 1 z 2, but about one third will have z > 2. Rates at z > 5 are highly uncertain. For ground based 8-10 m class telescopes we predict ~ 0.1 supernova per square arcmin to I_AB = 27, with about twice as many core collapse SNe as Type Ia's. The typical redshift will be z ~ 1, with an extended tail up to z ~ 2. Detectability of high redshift supernovae from ground is highly sensitive to the rest frame UV flux of the supernova, where line blanketing may decrease the rates severely in filters below 1 micron.