First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Results:
  Hubble Diagram and Cosmological Parameters
  We present measurements of the Hubble diagram for 103 Type Ia supernovae
(SNe) with redshifts 0.04 < z < 0.42, discovered during the first season (Fall
2005) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey. These data
fill in the redshift "desert" between low- and high-redshift SN Ia surveys. We
combine the SDSS-II measurements with new distance estimates for published SN
data from the ESSENCE survey, the Supernova Legacy Survey, the Hubble Space
Telescope, and a compilation of nearby SN Ia measurements. Combining the SN
Hubble diagram with measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the SDSS
Luminous Red Galaxy sample and with CMB temperature anisotropy measurements
from WMAP, we estimate the cosmological parameters w and Omega_M, assuming a
spatially flat cosmological model (FwCDM) with constant dark energy equation of
state parameter, w. For the FwCDM model and the combined sample of 288 SNe Ia,
we find w = -0.76 +- 0.07(stat) +- 0.11(syst), Omega_M = 0.306 +- 0.019(stat)
+- 0.023(syst) using MLCS2k2 and w = -0.96 +- 0.06(stat) +- 0.12(syst), Omega_M
= 0.265 +- 0.016(stat) +- 0.025(syst) using the SALT-II fitter. We trace the
discrepancy between these results to a difference in the rest-frame UV model
combined with a different luminosity correction from color variations; these
differences mostly affect the distance estimates for the SNLS and HST
supernovae. We present detailed discussions of systematic errors for both
light-curve methods and find that they both show data-model discrepancies in
rest-frame $U$-band. For the SALT-II approach, we also see strong evidence for
redshift-dependence of the color-luminosity parameter (beta). Restricting the
analysis to the 136 SNe Ia in the Nearby+SDSS-II samples, we find much better
agreement between the two analysis methods but with larger uncertainties.
