Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-57/1/i/solution

Use for the conformal expansion rate and for the physical Hubble parameter. A future unit normal to a constant- slice is
It has norm minus one, and the spatial projection tensor is . The nonzero connections needed here are , and . Thus . Projection removes every normal component, yielding
This uses the positive-expansion convention for extrinsic curvature in the question. With the alternative convention that inserts an overall minus sign, all these extrinsic-curvature quantities change sign.
For a comoving cell, the physical volume is proportional to . Its logarithmic derivative in proper time is . Thus the trace is the expansion rate of the normal congruence: positive for expansion and negative for contraction. The isotropic tensor has vanishing trace-free shear. It measures homogeneous expansion, not the intrinsic spatial curvature, which is zero in this flat model.

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