SALT: a Spectral Adaptive Light curve Template for Type Ia Supernovae

We present a new method to estimate luminosity distances of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from their multi-color light curves. The method was developed in view of analyzing the large number of SN Ia multi-color light curves measured in current high-redshift projects such as ESSENCE or SNLS. The technique is based on modeling SN Ia luminosity as a function of phase, wavelength, a shape parameter, and a color parameter. The model is trained with a sample of well measured nearby SNe Ia and then tested with an independent set of supernovae. We obtain luminosity distance estimates using U- and B-band data only, comparable in precision with those obtained with B- and V-band data. 1