Speaker: Szymon Prajs

Superluminous Supernovae (SLSNe) are a recently discovered, extremely luminous and rare class of supernova (SN) events. While their progenitor systems are still a matter of debate, the birth of a magnetar at a core of a dying, massive and metal poor star is the leading contender. In recent years surveys like Pan-STARSS and PTF have largely increased the known sample of SLSNe giving us a glimpse at their population and leading to suggestions that they could be used as standardisable candles in a similar way to type-Ia SNe. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) with the aid of SUDSS (a dedicated SLSNe survey lead by the Southampton supernova group) will likely double this sample, opening the door to a full standardisation study, and the possibility of supernova cosmology at z > 3, in the decades of LSST and Euclid. In this talk, I will discuss my work on selecting SLSNe in large supernova surveys including SDSS, SNLS and DES, measurements of the rate of SLSNe in SNLS and the latest results from the DES SLSN search.