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In the decoupled perfect fluid in general relativity limit, photons have $w=1/3$ and no anisotropic stress, while cold baryons have $w\simeq 0$ with a small pressure correction $c_b^2{\delta }_b$. The density equations express particle and energy conservation; Thomson scattering transfers momentum rather than leading-order rest-frame energy. The photon Euler equation consequently gains a drag toward the baryon velocity potential, and the baryon Euler equation gains the equal-and-opposite drag weighted by their inertias.

Let ${\Gamma }_T=a{n}_e{\sigma }_T>0$. With the velocity potential used in part (i), these forces are $-{\Gamma }_T({\theta }_{\gamma }-{\theta }_b)$ and $-R{\Gamma }_T({\theta }_b-{\theta }_{\gamma })$, with $R=4{\bar{\rho }}_{\gamma }/(3{\bar{\rho }}_b)$. Multiplication by the photon and baryon enthalpies, $4{\bar{\rho }}_{\gamma }/3$ and ${\bar{\rho }}_b$, makes their sum zero. Note that this paper's $R$ is the reciprocal of the usual baryon loading parameter. Thomson scattering also relaxes the photon quadrupole, giving the $-{\Gamma }_T{\sigma }_{\gamma }$ term in the stipulated simplified hierarchy. This quadrupole is an anisotropic stress, omitted by a perfect-fluid model; finite relaxation creates Silk damping.

The printed baryon density sign and collision normalization are inconsistent with part (i). The density equation must be ${\delta }_b^{\prime }-k^2{\theta }_b=-h^{\prime }/2$. As a direct check, with $h^{\prime }=0$, nonzero common velocity, and initially ${\delta }_{\gamma }=4{\delta }_b/3$, the printed plus sign gives $({\delta }_{\gamma }-4{\delta }_b/3{)}^{\prime }=8k^2\theta /3$, violating the tight-coupling adiabatic condition immediately. Likewise division of the collision forces by $k^2$ belongs to neither this potential convention nor the usual common velocity-divergence convention; the physical relaxation rate is ${\Gamma }_T$, independent of $k$. Both printed drag terms still cancel in the weighted sum used below, so that particular algebraic combination is unaffected by this normalization error.

For a nonrelativistic distribution, $T^{ij}=\int d^{3}p{p}^i{p}^{j}f/E$ is down by $v^2$ relative to the rest-mass energy density, and the corresponding anisotropic stress is also suppressed. The streaming terms coupling successive angular moments are proportional to $kv$, and stresses from the velocity distribution disappear in the cold limit. Thus, on scales where velocity dispersion is negligible, density and bulk velocity suffice; the photon Boltzmann hierarchy has no analogous small-speed suppression. This argument needs a cold distribution or a controlled small-dispersion approximation. Collisionless nonrelativistic matter with appreciable dispersion or multistreaming need not be an exact perfect fluid, and near photon decoupling the higher photon moments cannot all remain negligible.

The $\ell =2$ projection of the Boltzmann hierarchy isIn tight coupling, ${\Theta }_2=O(k/\Gamma )$ and ${\Theta }_3$ is higher order. Neglecting ${\Theta }_2^{\prime }$ relative to $\Gamma {\Theta }_2$ at leading order givesso $C=2/5$.