Do Type Ia Supernovae Provide Direct Evidence for Past Deceleration of the Universe?

Observations of SN 1997ff at z ~ 1.7 favor the accelerating Universe interpretation of the high-redshift type Ia supernova data over simple models of intergalactic dust or SN luminosity evolution. Taken at face-value, they provide direct lines of evidence that the Universe was decelerating in the past, an expected but untested feature of the current cosmological model. We show that the strength of this conclusion depends upon the nature of the dark energy causing the present acceleration. Only for a cosmological constant is the SNe evidence definitive. Using a new test which is independent of the contents of the Universe, we show that the SN data favor recent acceleration (z < 0.5) and past deceleration (z > 0.5).

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