Based in part on observations taken at the European Southern Observatory using the ESO Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal (ESO Program 265.A-5721(B)). Based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program GO-8346. Based in part on data collected from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Corporation, which is operated by the National Research Council of Canada, le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de France, and the University of Hawaii. Based in part on observations taken at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.

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Table 2 is only available at http://www.edpsciences.org

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... template

The B-band template in Nugent et al. (2002) has been used because we found that it describes well the data when used with the method developed here. We note that there are no physical reasons for choosing the B-band over other bands or other kinds of templates.

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... 0.03 mag

The value fitted for $M^I_{\rm max}$ depends on the value assumed for the Hubble parameter, H₀=72 km s^-1 Mpc^-1. However, its value is not used in any of the further analysis presented in this paper.

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... $z_{{\rm CMB}} \ge 0.01$

The lower limit chosen in previous analyses by the SCP is slightly higher. However, we include these lower redshift SNe in the sample in order to increase the statistical significance. Cutting the Hubble diagram above z = 0.015 would decrease the sample by about 30%. Note, however, that this choice does not significantly affect any of the results.

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... IRAF

IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

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...(Tonry et al. 2003)

Another supernova, SN 1999fn, was followed in J-band by the HZSST during the same search. However since it was found in a highly extincted Galactic field, E(B-V) = 0.32 mag, and since it was strongly contaminated by the host galaxy, we did not include it in our analysis.

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