Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/iii/paper-67/2/b/solution

The outer factor is explicitly , the normalized scale factor of an Einstein-de Sitter universe, with the same enclosed mass and initial bang time as the region. The correction describes a fractional reduction of the region's radius relative to this background:
For fixed mass, density varies as inverse radius cubed, so . The growing linear density contrast is therefore
The full spherical collapse reverses its expansion at and reaches zero radius at , corresponding to . In the ideal cold, pressureless model this makes the nonlinear density contrast infinite. Extrapolating the linear growing mode to that same time instead gives the finite linear spherical-collapse threshold
This is an extrapolation of a linear perturbation, not an accurate finite-radius approximation at the moment of collapse. Virial equilibrium requires relaxation of the cold coherent motion and replaces the ideal singular endpoint.

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