Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2010/iii/paper-53/4/solution

Use . For a canonical light scalar field with effective mass , define the canonical Fourier mode . In the nearly de Sitter approximation it obeys
Deep inside the Hubble radius, , the mode behaves like a Minkowski oscillator. Choosing the Bunch-Davies vacuum sets . The normalized de Sitter solution is
Inflation stretches the physical wavelength until it exits the Hubble radius. For , the growing scalar solution freezes with . The dimensionless power spectrum is therefore
Here is evaluated when , since slow evolution near horizon exit fixes the frozen amplitude. Nearly constant and a light field make this spectrum almost scale-invariant; slow background evolution and small mass corrections produce a small tilt. The stretched vacuum modes supply the primordial stochastic fluctuations.

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