Galaxies, and clusters of galaxies, can act as gravitational lenses and magnify the light of objects behind them. The effect enables observations of very distant supernovae, that otherwise would be too faint to be detected by existing telescopes, and allows studies of the frequency and properties of these rare phenomena when the universe was young. Under the right circumstances, multiple images of the lensed supernovae can be observed, and due to the variable nature of the objects, the difference between the arrival times of the images can be measured. Since the images have taken different paths through space before reaching us, the time-differences are sensitive to the expansion rate of the universe. One class of supernovae, Type Ia, are of particular interest to detect. Their well known brightness can be used to determine the magnification, which can be used to understand the lensing systems. In this thesis, galaxy clusters are used as gravitational telescopes to search for lensed supernovae at high redshift. Ground-based, near-infrared and optical search campaigns are described of the massive clusters Abell 1689 and 370, which are among the most powerful gravitational telescopes known. The search resulted in the discovery of five photometrically classified, core-collapse supernovae at redshifts of 0.671&lt;z&lt;1.703 with significant magnification from the cluster. Owing to the power of the lensing cluster, the volumetric core-collapse supernova rates for 0.4 ≤ z &lt; 2.9 were calculated, and found to be in good agreement with previous estimates and predictions from cosmic star formation history. During the survey, two Type Ia supernovae in A1689 cluster members were also discovered, which allowed the Type Ia explosion rate in galaxy clusters to be estimated. Furthermore, the expectations of finding lensed supernovae at high redshift in simulated search campaigns that can be conducted with upcoming ground- and space-based telescopes, are discussed. Magnification from a galaxy lens also allows for detailed studies of the supernova properties at high redshift that otherwise would not be possible. Spectroscopic observations of lensed high-redshift supernovae Type Ia are of special interest since they can be used to test for evolution of the standard candle nature of these objects. If systematic redshift-dependent properties are found, their utility for future surveys could be challenged. In the thesis it is shown that the strongly lensed and very distant supernova Type Ia PS1-10afx at z=1.4, does not deviate from the well-studied nearby and intermediate populations of normal supernovae Type Ia. In a different study, the discovery of the first resolved multiply-imaged gravitationally lensed supernova Type Ia is also reported. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

Supernovae are cosmic explosions of cataclysmic proportion that signify the death of a star. While being interesting phenomena in their own right, their brightness also make them excellent probes of the early universe. Depending on the type of the progenitor star and the origin of the explosion different subjects can be investigated. In this dissertation the work I have done on the detection, characterisation and rate measurements of supernovae in the Stockholm VIMOS Supernova Search is presented. We have discovered 16 supernovae that exploded billions of years ago (or, equivalently, at high redshift, z). The observed brightness and colour evolution have been used to classify the supernovae into either thermonuclear (type Ia) or core collapse (type II) supernovae. The accuracy of the classification code is high, only about 5% of the supernovae are mistyped, similar to other codes of the same kind. By comparing the observed frequency of supernovae to simulations the underlying supernova rate at these high redshifts have been measured. The main result reported in this thesis is that the core collapse supernova rate at high redshift matches the rates estimated from looking at the star formation history of the universe, and agree well with previous studies. The rate of Ia supernovae at high redshift have been investigated by several projects, our results show a somewhat higher rate of Ia supernovae than expected. Proper estimates of the systematic errors of rate measurements are found to be very important. Furthermore, by using novel techniques for reducing and stacking images, we have obtained a galaxy sample containing approximately 50,000 galaxies. Photometric redshifts have been obtained for most of the galaxies, the resulting accuracy below z=1 is on the order of 10%. The galaxy sample has also been used to find high redshift sources, so called Lyman Break Galaxies, at z=3-5. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.