Gravitational Magnification of Pop III Supernovae in Hierarchical Cosmological Models: NGST Perspectives

Abstract

We study the gravitational lensing magnification produced by the intervening cosmological matter distribution, as deduced from three different hierarchical models (SCDM, LCDM, CHDM) on very high redshift sources, particularly supernovae in protogalactic (Pop III) objects. By means of ray-shooting numerical simulations we find that caustics are more intense and concentrated in SCDM models. The magnification probability function presents a moderate degree of evolution up to $z\approx 5$ (CHDM) and $z\approx 7$ (SCDM/LCDM). All models predict that statistically large magnifications, $\mu \simgt 20$ are achievable, with a probability of the order of a fraction of percent, the SCDM model being the most efficient magnifier. All cosmologies predict that above $z\approx 4$ there is a 10% chance to get magnifications larger than 3. We have explored the observational perspectives for Pop III SNe detection with NGST when gravitational magnification is taken into account. We find that NGST should be able to detect and confirm spectroscopically Type II SNe up to a redshift of $z \approx 4$ in the J band (for $T_{SN}=25000$ K); this limit could be increased up to $z\approx 9$ in the K band, allowing for a relatively moderate magnification. Possibly promising strategies to discriminate among cosmological models using their GL magnification predictions and very high-$z$ SNe are sketched. Finally, we outline and discuss the limitations of our study.