Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-general-relativity-and-cosmology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/4/a/solution
Past exam of the general relativity and cosmology course of the University of Oxford 2012 4 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
For a separately conserved homogeneous component, energy conservation gives , equivalently . Dust has negligible pressure, while isotropic radiation has . HenceThe matter factor is volume dilution; photons additionally lose energy by cosmological redshift. Nonrelativistic baryons and cold dark matter both contribute to the matter term, so . At equality , givingThis is equality for the source's matter-plus-photon model. Additional relativistic species would contribute to total radiation and shift the equality value. Although the source calls the 's energy densities, its Friedmann equation and later show that their consistent SI meaning is mass-equivalent density.
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