Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-general-relativity-and-cosmology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2013/4/a/solution

Throughout this question use natural units with . For zero potential and nonzero kinetic energy, the homogeneous canonical scalar field has , so . Its equation of motion becomes , giving and therefore
The same scaling follows from cosmological energy conservation with constant equation-of-state parameter . If the field is exactly constant, both and vanish and their ratio is undefined; that is the separate empty solution.

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