DISCOVERY OF THE MOST DISTANT SUPERNOVAE AND THE QUEST FOR OMEGA

A search for cosmological supernovae has discovered a number of a type Ia supernovae. In particular, one at z = 0.458 is the most distant supernova yet observed. There is strong evidence from measurements of nearby type Is supernovae that they can be considered as ''standard candles''. We plan to use these supernovae to measure the deceleration in the general expansion of the universe. The aim of our experiment is to try and observe and measure about 30 such distant supernovae in order to obtain a measurement of the deceleration parameter q(o), which is related to Ohm. Here Ohm is the ratio of the density of the universe to the critical density, and we expect a measurement with an accuracy of about 30%.