Standardization of type Ia supernovae
  Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been intensively investigated due to its
great homogeneity and high luminosity, which make it possible to use them as
standardizable candles for the determination of cosmological parameters. In
2011, the physics Nobel prize was awarded for the discovery of the accelerating
expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae. This is a
pedagogical article, aimed at those starting their study of that subject, in
which we dwell on some topics related to the analysis of SNe Ia and their use
in luminosity distance estimators. Here we investigate their spectral
properties and light curve standardization, paying careful attention to the
fundamental quantities directly related to the SNe Ia observables. Finally, we
describe our own step-by-step implementation of a classical light curve fitter,
the stretch, applying it to real data from the Carnegie Supernova Project.
