We use data from observational cosmology to put constraints on
higher-dimensional extensions of general relativity in which the effective
four-dimensional dark-energy density (or cosmological "constant") decays with
time. In particular we study the implications of this decaying dark energy for
the age of the universe, large-scale structure formation, big-bang
nucleosynthesis and the magnitude-redshift relation for Type Ia supernovae. Two
of these tests (age and the magnitude-redshift relation) place modest lower
limits on the free parameter of the theory, a cosmological length scale L akin
to the de Sitter radius. These limits will improve if experimental
uncertainties on supernova magnitudes can be reduced around z=1.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, submitted to A&
