1. Finding The First Cosmic Explosions
Daniel Whalen
Carnegie Mellon University
Chris Fryer, Lucy Frey
LANL

2. ~ 200 pc
Cosmological
Halo z ~ 20

3. Properties of the First Stars
form in isolation (one per halo)
very massive ( solar masses) due to inefficient
H2 cooling
Tsurface ~ 100,000 K
extremely luminous sources of ionizing and LW photons
(> 1050 photons s-1)
2 - 3 Myr lifetimes

4. Transformation of the Halo
Whalen, Abel & Norman 2004, ApJ, 610, 14
This gas is gravitationally unbound from the halo.
Central densities of 1013 cm-3 are paved flat to 0.1 cm-3 4

5. Primordial Ionization Front Instabilities
Whalen & Norman 2008, ApJ, 675, 644 5

6. Final Fates of the First Stars
Heger & Woosley 2002, ApJ 567, 532
type ii / hypernovae: remnant
PISN: no remnant 6

7. Post Processing Includes Detailed LANL Opacities
but the atomic levels are
assumed to be in equilibrium,
a clear approximation 7

8. PISN Shock Breakout X-rays (> 100 eV) transient (a few
hours in the local
frame)
need rad hydro to get x-ray spike right (otherwise, flux is 12 orders of magnitude too low). Need 2T physics because the 1T physics done in earlier PISN LC models overestimates breakout flux by 2 orders of magnitude 8

9. Spectra at
Breakout
The spectra evolve
rapidly as the front
cools 9

10. Long-Term Light-Curve Evolution even the lowest energy PISN at
z ~ 10 produces
a large signal in
the JWST NIR
camera over the
first 50 days 10

11. Late Time Spectra spectral features after breakout may enable us
to distinguish between
PISN and CC SNe
larger parameter study
with well-resolved
photospheres is now in
progress 11

12. Chemical Mixing Prior to Breakout
Core Collapse SN
PISN
Joggerst, Whalen, et al 2010, ApJ, 709, 11
Joggerst & Whalen 2010, ApJ in prep

13. Roadmap Ahead current models are grey FLD; next step is
multigroup FLD and then multigroup IMC
advance from 1D RTP AMR calculations
to 2D cartesian AMR grids
incorporate mixing from 2D models to
simulate core-collapse SNe ( solar
mass stars, hypernovae)
implement non-equilibrium opacities
investigate progenitor environments on
LC and spectra (LBV brightening?)
explore asymmetric explosion mechanisms
evolve toward 2D AMR IMC rad hydro
with thousands of frequency bins -- eliminate
post processing 13

14. Conclusions
PISN will be visible to JWST out to z ~ 15; strong lensing may
enable their detection out to z ~ 20 (Holz, Whalen & Fryer 2010
ApJ in prep)
however, the redshifted initial x-ray transient will likely fall outside
of the trigger wavelength of SWIFT and its envisioned successors
as a consequence, first detection of PISN by JWST would be
serendipitous
dedicated ground-based campaigns with 30-meter class telescopes
are the most probable avenue to finding the first SN explosions
discrimination between Pop III PISN and Pop III CC SNe will be
challenging but offers the first direct constraints on the Pop III IMF
complementary detection of Pop III PISN remnants by the SZ effect
may be possible (Whalen, Bhattacharya & Holz 2010, ApJ in prep) 14