The Type Ia Supernova Rate at z ∼ 0.4

We present the first measurement of the rate of Type Ia supernovae at high redshift. The result is derived using a large subset of data from the Supernova Cosmology Project as described in more detail at this meeting by Perlmutter et al. (1996). We present our methods for estimating the numbers of galaxies and the number of solar luminosities to which the survey is sensitive, the supernova detection efficiency and hence the control time. We derive a rest-frame Type la supernova rate at z~ 0.4 of 0.82 −0.37 +0.54 −0.32 +0.42 h 2 SNu where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second includes systematic effects.