The spatial coordinates are cyclic because the flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric depends only on time. Differentiating the printed affine Lagrangian gives the canonical momentum
The Euler-Lagrange equations give , so
This is the conserved quantity associated with spatial translation invariance. The overall minus sign in the stated action makes this canonical covector opposite to the usual future-directed mechanical momentum; it does not alter the geodesic trajectories or the conservation result. The canonical momentum sign in the affine particle action will be kept explicit below.