Abstract
The first supernovae will soon be visible at the edge of the observable
universe, revealing the birthplaces of Population III stars. With upcoming
near-infrared missions, a broad analysis of the detectability of Population III
supernovae is paramount. We combine cosmological and radiation transport
simulations, instrument specifications, and survey strategies to create
synthetic observations of primeval core-collapse, Type IIn and pair-instability
supernovae with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). We show that a dedicated
observational campaign with the JWST can detect up to $15$
pair-instability explosions, $300$ core-collapse supernovae, but less than
one Type IIn explosion per year, depending on the Population III star formation
history. Our synthetic survey also shows that $10^2$ supernova detections,
properly classified, are sufficient to discriminate between a Salpeter and flat
mass distribution for primordial stars with a confidence level greater than
99.5 per cent.
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