Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/iii/paper-58/5/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 58 5 c Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Vary the action with compactly supported variations and integrate by parts. Its overall normalization does not affect the equation of motion:Here , so the massless scalar field obeysSeparate a spatial Fourier mode as . Its mode equation is . With conformal time , and , it becomesFor , put and . Direct differentiation reduces the equation tothe Spherical Bessel function equation with order one. Hence the complete classical mode basis isSince and , an equivalent complex basis isThe classical action does not select one frequency branch or a quantum vacuum. A real field has conjugate-related coefficients at opposite wavevectors. The zero mode, which is not obtained by treating these two basis functions as independent at , isAt late times one independent solution freezes and the other decays as . These are minimally coupled massless modes; the supplied action has no curvature-coupling term, so it should not be replaced by the conformally coupled wave equation.
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