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arXiv · 2601.04156

A spectroscopically confirmed, strongly lensed, metal-poor Type II supernova at z = 5.13

David A. Coulter·Conor Larison·Justin D. R. Pierel·Seiji Fujimoto·Vasily Kokorev·Joseph F. V. Allingham·Takashi J. Moriya·Matthew Siebert·Yoshihisa Asada·Rachel Bezanson·Maruša Bradač·Gabriel Brammer·John Chisholm·Dan Coe·Pratika Dayal·Michael Engesser·Steven L. Finkelstein·Ori D. Fox·Lukas J. Furtak·Anton M. Koekemoer·Thomas Moore·Minami Nakane·Masami Ouchi·Richard Pan·Robert Quimby·Armin Rest·Johan Richard·Luke Robbins·Louis-Gregory Strolger·Fengwu Sun·Tommaso Treu·Hiroto Yanagisawa·Abdurro'uf·Aadya Agrawal·Ricardo Amorín·Joseph P. Anderson·Rodrigo Angulo·Hakim Atek·Franz E. Bauer·Larry D. Bradley·Volker Bromm·Mateusz Bronikowski·Christopher J. Conselice·Christa DeCoursey·James M. DerKacy·Guillaume Desprez·Suhail Dhawan·Jose M. Diego·Eiichi Egami·Andreas Faisst·Brenda Frye·Sebastian Gomez·Mauro González-Otero·Massimo Griggio·Yuichi Harikane·Kohei Inayoshi·Saurabh W. Jha·Yolanda Jiménez-Teja·Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe·Patrick L. Kelly·Lindsey A. Kwok·Zachary G. Lane·Xiaolong Li·Ivo Lobbe·Paulo A. A. Lopes·Ray A. Lucas·Georgios E. Magdis·Nicholas S. Martis·Jorryt Matthee·Ashish K. Meena·Rohan P. Naidu·Gaël Noirot·Masamune Oguri·Estefania Padilla Gonzalez·Massimo Pascale·Tanja Petrushevska·Massimo Ricotti·Daniel Schaerer·Stefan Schuldt·Melissa Shahbandeh·William Sheu·Koji Shukawa·Akiyoshi Tsujita·Eros Vanzella·Qinan Wang·John Weaver·Robert Williams·Rogier Windhorst·Yi Xu·Yossef Zenati·Adi Zitrin

Abstract

Observing supernovae (SNe) in the early Universe (z > 3) provides a window into how both galaxies and individual stars have evolved over cosmic time, yet a detailed study of high-redshift stars and SNe has remained difficult due to their extreme distances and cosmological redshifting. To overcome the former, searches for gravitationally lensed sources allow for the discovery of magnified SNe that appear as multiple images - further providing the opportunity for efficient follow-up. Here we present the discovery of "SN Eos": a strongly lensed, multiply-imaged, SN II at a spectroscopic redshift of z = 5.133 +/- 0.001. SN Eos exploded in a Lyman-α emitting galaxy when the Universe was only ~1 billion years old, shortly after it reionized and became transparent to ultraviolet radiation. A year prior to our discovery in JWST data, archival HST imaging of SN Eos reveals rest-frame far ultraviolet (~1,300Å) emission, indicative of shock breakout or interaction with circumstellar material in the first few (rest-frame) days after explosion. The JWST spectroscopy of SN Eos, now the farthest spectroscopically confirmed SN ever discovered, shows that SN Eos's progenitor star likely formed in a metal-poor environment (<= 0.1 Z_{\odot}), providing the first direct evidence of massive star formation in the metal-poor, early Universe. SN Eos would not have been detectable without the extreme lensing magnification of the system, highlighting the potential of such discoveries to eventually place constraints on the faint end of the cosmic star-formation rate density in the very early Universe.

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David A. Coulter, Conor Larison, Justin D. R. Pierel, Seiji Fujimoto, Vasily Kokorev, Joseph F. V. Allingham, Takashi J. Moriya, Matthew Siebert, Yoshihisa Asada, Rachel Bezanson, Maruša Bradač, Gabriel Brammer, John Chisholm, Dan Coe, Pratika Dayal, Michael Engesser, Steven L. Finkelstein, Ori D. Fox, Lukas J. Furtak, Anton M. Koekemoer, Thomas Moore, Minami Nakane, Masami Ouchi, Richard Pan, Robert Quimby, Armin Rest, Johan Richard, Luke Robbins, Louis-Gregory Strolger, Fengwu Sun, Tommaso Treu, Hiroto Yanagisawa, Abdurro'uf, Aadya Agrawal, Ricardo Amorín, Joseph P. Anderson, Rodrigo Angulo, Hakim Atek, Franz E. Bauer, Larry D. Bradley, Volker Bromm, Mateusz Bronikowski, Christopher J. Conselice, Christa DeCoursey, James M. DerKacy, Guillaume Desprez, Suhail Dhawan, Jose M. Diego, Eiichi Egami, Andreas Faisst, Brenda Frye, Sebastian Gomez, Mauro González-Otero, Massimo Griggio, Yuichi Harikane, Kohei Inayoshi, Saurabh W. Jha, Yolanda Jiménez-Teja, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Patrick L. Kelly, Lindsey A. Kwok, Zachary G. Lane, Xiaolong Li, Ivo Lobbe, Paulo A. A. Lopes, Ray A. Lucas, Georgios E. Magdis, Nicholas S. Martis, Jorryt Matthee, Ashish K. Meena, Rohan P. Naidu, Gaël Noirot, Masamune Oguri, Estefania Padilla Gonzalez, Massimo Pascale, Tanja Petrushevska, Massimo Ricotti, Daniel Schaerer, Stefan Schuldt, Melissa Shahbandeh, William Sheu, Koji Shukawa, Akiyoshi Tsujita, Eros Vanzella, Qinan Wang, John Weaver, Robert Williams, Rogier Windhorst, Yi Xu, Yossef Zenati, Adi Zitrin. 2026-01-20. A spectroscopically confirmed, strongly lensed, metal-poor Type II supernova at z = 5.13. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04156

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