Testing for a Super-Acceleration Phase of the Universe

Abstract

We propose a method to probe the phenomenological nature of dark energy which makes no assumptions about the evolution of its energy density. We exemplify this method with a test for a super-acceleration phase of the universe i.e., a phase when the dark energy density grows as the universe expands. We show how such a phase can be detected by combining SNIa (SNAP-like) and CMB (Planck) data without making any assumptions about the evolution of the dark energy equation of state, or about the value of the matter density parameter.

Matches version accepted for publication in PRD. Added discussion of the effect of the calibration parameter on detecting super-acceleration. 8 pages and 4 figures