Beacons In the Dark: Using Novae and Supernovae to Detect Dwarf Galaxies
  in the Local Universe
  We propose that luminous transients, including novae and supernovae, can be
used to detect the faintest galaxies in the universe. Beyond a few Mpc, dwarf
galaxies with stellar masses $<10^6 M_{\odot}$ will likely be too faint and/or
too low in surface brightness to be directly detected in upcoming large area
ground-based photometric surveys. However, single epoch LSST photometry will be
able to detect novae to distances of $\sim30$ Mpc and SNe to Gpc-scale
distances. Depending on the form of the stellar mass-halo mass relation and the
underlying star formation histories of low mass dwarfs, the expected nova rates
will be a few to $\sim100$ yr$^{-1}$ and the expected SN rates (including both
type Ia and core-collapse) will be $\sim10^2-10^4$ within the observable
($4\pi$ sr) volume. The transient rate associated with intrahalo stars will be
comparably large, but these transients will be located close to bright
galaxies, in contrast to the dwarfs, which should trace the underlying large
scale structure of the cosmic web. Aggressive follow-up of hostless transients
has the potential to uncover the predicted enormous population of low mass
field dwarf galaxies.
