Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/iii/paper-312/4/a/solution

In the absence of scalar anisotropic stress, the traceless spatial Einstein field equations give
The photon mass-shell condition , together with and , gives to first order
Use the time component of the geodesic equation, divide it by , and substitute the stated Christoffel symbols. Keeping the perturbed ratios where they multiply the background terms makes those terms cancel. Comparing the result with the total derivative of yields
The first term is the time-dependent gravitational redshift and the second is the gravitational frequency shift along the photon direction.

New to topics? Read the docs here!