Supernova Pencil Beam Survey

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Abstract
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can be calibrated to be good standard candles at cosmological distances. We propose a supernova pencil beam survey that could yield between dozens and hundreds of SNe Ia in redshift bins of 0.1 up to z = 1.5, which would complement space-based supernova searches and enable the proper consideration of the systematic uncertainties of SNe Ia as standard candles, in particular, luminosity evolution and gravitational lensing. We simulate SNe Ia luminosities by adding weak lensing noise (using empirical fitting formulae) and scatter in SN Ia absolute magnitudes to standard candles placed at random redshifts. We show that flux averaging is powerful in reducing the combined noise due to gravitational lensing and scatter in SN Ia absolute magnitudes. The supernova number count is not sensitive to matter distribution in the universe; it can be used to test models of cosmology or to measure the supernova rate. The supernova pencil beam survey can yield a wealth of data which should enable accurate determination of the cosmological parameters and the supernova rate, and provide valuable information on the formation and evolution of galaxies. The supernova pencil beam survey can be accomplished on a dedicated 4 m telescope with a square degree field of view. This telescope can be used to conduct other important observational projects compatible with the supernova pencil beam survey, such as QSOs, Kuiper belt objects, and, in particular, weak lensing measurements of field galaxies, and the search for gamma-ray burst afterglows.