SNLS: Overview and High-z Spectroscopy

Abstract

The Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS; http://cfht.hawaii.edu/SNLS) will discover and obtain g'r'i'z' lightcurves for more than 700 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia (0.3<z<0.9) to differentiate between competing models for Dark Energy. We fit the multicolor lightcurves of the candidates to determine which are likely SNe Ia and send them for follow-up spectroscopy to the Keck, VLT, and Gemini telescopes. Here we show the results from Gemini, where we send most of our highest redshift (0.6<z<0.9) targets.

To appear in "1604-2004: Supernovae as Cosmological Lighthouses", Padua, June 16-19 2004, eds. Turatto et al., ASP conference Series. 2 pages