Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/ii/paper-2/10a/solution

Set . Free propagation in the homogeneous expanding universe redshifts frequencies by and dilutes physical number density by . Number conservation in corresponding frequency intervals gives
Inserting the initial Planck spectrum, the factor becomes , while its exponent is . Hence
The shape is preserved even without collisions maintaining thermal equilibrium; it follows from redshift of an initially Planckian distribution.
For the total photon number density put . For the energy density include the energy of each photon. Then
where and . Both integrals are finite positive constants. Thus and , with the extra power supplied by photon-energy redshift.

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