Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-cosmology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2025/2/c/solution

Define the momentum density , lowering its spatial label with , so the mixed stress-energy tensor obeys and . All products of or its derivatives with are second order and must be dropped in linear cosmological perturbation theory.
For , the three terms in stress-energy conservation are
Here the trace vanishes, , and . Thus
For , spatial pressure gradients vanish because this is a purely vector cosmological perturbation. The first two terms are
In the remaining contraction, the two background-connection times momentum density terms cancel:
The other terms are and . Consequently
Expanding this conservation law and using the background cosmological continuity equation gives the equivalent peculiar velocity equation, when ,

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