Being dusty starbursts, (Ultra)Luminous InfraRed Galaxies (or (U)LIRGs) have high star formation rates, and hence should also have high rates of supernovae. For a typical ULIRG, this rate could be ~ 2-4 events/year. While (U)LIRGs are rare objects in the local universe, their number density grows rapidly as a function of redshift. This makes them ideal targets to search for high-redshift supernovae, which in turn could provide a new avenue for studying galaxy evolution at high-redshifts. However, such a high rate of supernovae must be heavily obscured by dust and thus could only be revealed by observations at the restframe infrared and longer wavelengths. JWST, the next generation IR space telescope, will (soon) be able to open up this new window. To maximize the science returns from the precious JWST resources, such supernova search must be conducted with other time-domain studies in mind (in particular the search for “first stars”). The rationale and some details about this new study will be laid out in this talk.

BIO
I'm an astronomer at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri-Columbia. My research interests fall in the broad category of galaxy formation and evolution, in particular galaxies in the early universe and the mass assembly history of galaxies through cosmic time. Being an observer, I use both ground- and space-based facilities for these studies.