Expanding the High-z Supernova Frontier: “Wide-area” JWST Discoveries from the First 2 yr of COSMOS-Web

Transient astronomy of the early Universe (z ≳ 2) remains largely unexplored, lying beyond the rest-frame optical spectroscopic reach of most current observatories. Yet this regime promises transformative insights, with high-redshift transients providing direct access to the early Universe and enabling studies of how stellar populations and cosmology evolve over cosmic time. JWST is uniquely equipped to probe these redshifts efficiently in the rest-frame optical and near-IR. We present results from an initial pathfinder search, covering an area of ∼133 arcmin² (∼0.037 deg²) independently imaged by the PRIMER and COSMOS-Web extragalactic surveys. Although neither program was designed for time-domain astronomy, combining their data results in difference images separated by roughly 1 yr, leading to the discovery of 68 supernovae (SNe) with host photometric redshifts reaching z ≲ 5. For most SNe, only a single epoch is available, but the combination of host redshift, classification, color, and magnitude enables us to prioritize candidates for detailed photometric and spectroscopic follow-up. Among the most notable sources are a relatively bright, blue core-collapse SN at z > 3 (SN 2023aeab) and a young, normal Type Ia SN at z > 2 (SN 2023aeax). The sample distribution highlights the increasing likelihood that a wide-area JWST program can uncover younger, bluer, and potentially more extreme explosions. While this pathfinder effort is limited in cadence and number of filters, it demonstrates the strong potential of a dedicated, well-planned, time-domain survey with JWST to obtain the sample sizes and rate measurements needed to chart SN populations deep into the early Universe.