Searching for supernovae in the multiply-imaged galaxies behind the
  gravitational telescope A370
  Strong lensing by massive galaxy clusters can provide magnification of the
flux and even multiple images of the galaxies that lie behind them. This
phenomenon facilitates observations of high-redshift supernovae (SNe), that
would otherwise remain undetected. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) detections are
of particular interest because of their standard brightness, since they can be
used to improve either cluster lensing models or cosmological parameter
measurements. We present a ground-based, near-infrared search for lensed SNe
behind the galaxy cluster Abell 370. Our survey was based on 15 epochs of
J-band observations with the HAWK-I instrument on the Very Large Telescope
(VLT). We use Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry to infer the global
properties of the multiply-imaged galaxies. Using a recently published lensing
model of Abell 370, we also present the predicted magnifications and time
delays between the images. In our survey, we did not discover any live SNe from
the 13 lensed galaxies with 47 multiple images behind Abell 370. This is
consistent with the expectation of $0.09\pm0.02$ SNe calculated based on the
measured star formation rate. We compare the expectations of discovering
strongly lensed SNe in our survey and that performed with HST during the Hubble
Frontier Fields (HFF) programme. We also show the expectations of search
campaigns that can be conducted with future facilities, such as the James Webb
Space Telescope (JWST) or the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). We
show that the NIRCam instrument aboard the JWST will be sensitive to most SN
multiple images in the strongly lensed galaxies and thus will be able to
measure their time delays if observations are scheduled accordingly.
