Gravitational Lensing of Distant Supernovae in Cold Dark Matter Universes

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  • 25 October 1998
Abstract
Ongoing searches for supernovae (SNe) at cosmological distances have recently started to provide large numbers of events with measured redshifts and apparent brightnesses. Compared to quasars or galaxies, Type Ia SNe represent a population of sources with well-known intrinsic properties, and could be used to detect gravitational lensing even in the absence of multiple or highly distorted images. We investigate the lensing effect of background SNe due to mass condensations in three popular cold dark matter cosmologies (LambdaCDM, OCDM, SCDM), and compute lensing frequencies, rates of SN explosions, and distributions of arrival time differences and image separations. If dark halos approximate singular isothermal spheres, distributed in mass according to the Press-Schechter theory, about one every 20 SNe at z=1 will be magnified by Delta m>0.1 mag. The detection rate of SN Ia with magnification Delta m>0.3 is estimated to be of order a few events per year per square degree at maximum B-light and I25 and have the largest fraction of lensed objects. The optimal survey sensitivity for Type Ia's magnified by Delta m>0.75 mag is I=23-24.

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