Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ii/paper-3/8c/solution

The Flatness problem is the extreme closeness to spatial flatness required in the early universe if ordinary decelerating expansion is to produce the observed near-flat universe. From the Friedmann equation, with and curvature constant ,
During decelerating expansion grows. The Friedmann acceleration equation gives . Thus makes an expanding universe accelerate, increases and suppresses : this is the inflationary solution of the flatness problem.
The slow-roll approximation neglects compared with and compared with . For the positive-field branch, taking ,
Integrating the field equation and gives the slow-roll solution
The potential slow-roll parameters are . They cease to be small when is of order in these units; the customary endpoint is . Equating the approximate kinetic and potential energies instead gives , another order-one indicator, not a precise endpoint of an approximation that is already failing.

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