Supermassive population III supernovae and the birth of the first quasars
- T-2, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
- CCS-2, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
- Monash Centre for Astrophysics, Monash University, Victoria 3800 (Australia)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093 (United States)
- XTD-3, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
The existence of supermassive black holes as early as z ∼ 7 is one of the great, unsolved problems in cosmological structure formation. One leading theory argues that they are born during catastrophic baryon collapse in z ∼ 15 protogalaxies that form in strong Lyman-Werner UV backgrounds. Atomic line cooling in such galaxies fragments baryons into massive clumps that are thought to directly collapse to 10{sup 4}-10{sup 5} M {sub ☉} black holes. We have now discovered that some of these fragments can instead become supermassive stars that eventually explode as thermonuclear supernovae (SNe) with energies of ∼10{sup 55} erg, the most energetic explosions in the universe. We have calculated light curves and spectra for supermassive Pop III SNe with the Los Alamos RAGE and SPECTRUM codes. We find that they will be visible in near-infrared all-sky surveys by Euclid out to z ∼ 10-15 and by WFIRST and WISH out to z ∼ 15-20, perhaps revealing the birthplaces of the first quasars.
- OSTI ID:
- 22342045
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 778, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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