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T. R. Young (University of North Dakota)
A numerical study of type II supernova light curves is presented. The progenitor stars examined are polytropes of main sequence masses in the range 20 - 80 M\odot. The metalicity is varied from z = 0.0 to 0.25 times the solar metalicity. The effects of metalicity are found to be important in determining the radius of the progenitor at explosion, which directly effects the shape of the early light curve. The influence of low metalicity on the explosion dynamics is found to be very small. The effects of high red-shifts, up to z = 2, on the light curve are examined through the use of a k-correction in selected bands. Extremely low metalicity stars and population III stars, are thought to have been 1) more massive and larger, and thus expected to have a brighter light curve, but 2) formed earlier in the evolution of galaxies and only observable at high red-shift, which diminishes and reddens the light curve. Possible uniqueness in the light curves of these supernova, due to these two effects, are discussed. Since the early spectrum of supernova type II's can be approximated by a blackbody to first order, the light curves in different bands are calculation using a blackbody distribution based on the luminosity and radius obtained from the simulations. Detection limits are examined at peak magnitude to determine which band gives the highest probability of discovery. Chances of discovery also depends on how long the supernova stays above a given detection limit in a certain band.