Free-streaming photon Boltzmann equation

In the absence of collisions, a photon phase-space density is constant along its geodesic. Linearizing this statement gives a first-order transport equation for the direction-dependent temperature perturbation.

The photon brightness perturbation is the fractional frequency-integrated directional energy perturbation. For a small blackbody temperature shift $\Theta =\delta T/T$, $f_1=-q{f}_0^{\prime }(q)\Theta$. Integration by parts gives $\Delta =4\Theta$. Its direction average is the photon density contrast. This temperature identification assumes a perturbation of blackbody form; the integrated brightness definition itself is more general.

// Target: cosmology.bigb

For collisionless photons in synchronous gauge, their perturbed momentum obeys $q^{\prime }=-q{h}_{ij}^{\prime }{n}^i{n}^j/2$. Terms in $q^{\prime }{\partial }_q{f}_1$ and direction deflection times angular derivatives of $f_1$ are second order. Integrating the remaining linear Collisionless Boltzmann equation over $q^{3}dq$ gives the displayed equation, because $\int q^4{f}_0^{\prime }dq=-4\int q^3{f}_{0}dq$.

// Target: cosmology.bigb

For synchronous gauge metric $d{s}^2=a^2[-d{\tau }^2+({\delta }_{ij}-h_{ij})d{x}^{i}d{x}^j]$, conserved-background comoving momentum obeys $q^{\prime }=q{h}_{ij}^{\prime }{n}^i{n}^j/2$. In the linear Collisionless Boltzmann equation, insert $\Delta =-4f_1/(q{f}_0^{\prime })$ to obtain the displayed source. Using ${\delta }_{ij}+h_{ij}$ instead reverses both signs; it does not change the physics. The scalar contraction is $h_{ij}^{\prime }{n}^i{n}^j=(h^{\prime }-h_s^{\prime })/3+{\mu }^2{h}_s^{\prime }$.

For a photon in $d{s}^2=a^2[-d{\tau }^2+({\delta }_{ij}+h_{ij})d{x}^{i}d{x}^j]$, the null geodesic condition cancels the homogeneous $2\mathcal{H}{p}^0$ term in the derivative of $q=a^2{p}^0$. The remaining first-order geodesic equation gives the displayed momentum change. Its direction is constant at zeroth order, so first-order redshift and brightness sources can be evaluated on the unperturbed ray; direction deflection multiplied by an already first-order anisotropy is second order.

Expanding the direction-dependent photon temperature in Legendre polynomials turns its transport equation into an infinite hierarchy. Free streaming couples each multipole ${\Theta }_{\ell }$ only to its neighbours ${\Theta }_{\ell -1}$ and ${\Theta }_{\ell +1}$.

With $B_i^{(\pm )}=i{B}^{(\pm )}{m}_i^{(\pm )}/\sqrt{2}$ and the same convention for baryon velocity, choose ${\Theta }^{(\pm )}={\sum }_{\ell \ge 1}(-i{)}^{\ell }\sqrt{2\pi /(2\ell +1)}{\Theta }_{\ell }^{(\pm )}{Y}_{\ell ,\pm 1}$. The spherical-harmonic streaming recurrence givesThis is the temperature-only Thomson scattering hierarchy without polarization feedback, with optical depth to the observer satisfying $\dot{\tau }<0$. A photon multipole normalization change changes the denominators and the dipole-source prefactor. The lower coupling vanishes at $\ell =1$, so no vector monopole occurs.

In Newtonian gauge in cosmology, the Free-streaming photon Boltzmann equation is $\dot{\Theta }+\mathbf{e}\cdot \nabla \Theta =\dot{\varphi }-\mathbf{e}\cdot \nabla \psi$. Angular averaging and the photon angular temperature moments give the displayed continuity equation. Its dipole yields the photon Euler equation, with the sign of the anisotropic stress term determined by the stress convention.

The dipole member of the photon Boltzmann hierarchy is the photon Euler equation. In Newtonian gauge and without collisions,

The line-of-sight solution integrates the gravitational source along the unperturbed photon trajectory. In Fourier space the integrating factor $e^{ik\mu \eta }$ accounts for free streaming between emission and observation.

In the negative-spatial-perturbation convention, a matter-era scalar solution $h=h_s+C=A{k}^{1/2}{\tau }^2/4$ gives the displayed exact photon brightness perturbation. Integration gives emission bracket ${\Delta }_{\ast }+iA{k}^{-1/2}\mu {\tau }_{\ast }-A{k}^{-3/2}$ times the propagation phase, plus observer monopole $A{k}^{-3/2}$ and dipole $-iA{k}^{-1/2}\mu {\tau }_0$. Under ordinary adiabatic growing-mode initial conditions and $k{\tau }_{\ast }\ll 1$, the emission gravitational term dominates higher angular multipoles. Arbitrary freely specified initial brightness need not obey this dominance.

With instantaneous photon decoupling and tight-coupling initial brightness, integrate the synchronous photon brightness equation along the unperturbed ray $\mathbf{x}(\tau )={\mathbf{x}}_0-\mathbf{n}({\tau }_0-\tau )$. The direction $\mathbf{n}$ here is photon propagation, opposite to the observer-to-source sky direction. Emission terms are evaluated at the emitter, not the observer. The synchronous metric integral combines endpoint gravitational redshifts and evolving-potential effects when expressed in Newtonian gauge; it is not solely the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect.

// Target: cosmology.bigb

Use $h_{ij}{n}^i{n}^j=h/3+({\mu }^2-1/3)h_s$. Two integrations by parts of the anisotropic source give the exact Cosmic microwave background anisotropy amplitude $W_{\ast }[{\delta }_{\gamma }/4+3i\mu {\delta }_{\gamma }^{\prime }/(4k)+i\mu (h^{\prime }-h_s^{\prime })/(2k)+h_s^{\prime \prime }/(2k^2){]}_{\ast }+[i\mu h_s^{\prime }/(2k)-h_s^{\prime \prime }/(2k^2){]}_0-{\int }_{\ast }^{0}W[(h^{\prime }-h_s^{\prime })/6-h_s^{\prime \prime \prime }/(2k^2)]d\tau$. The emission velocity was eliminated using ${\delta }_{\gamma }^{\prime }+4ik\cdot v/3+2h^{\prime }/3=0$. The local observer bracket is a monopole plus a dipole and can be discarded only after explicitly restricting to the measured higher angular multipoles. This identity fixes endpoint signs and integral factors without importing a different scalar-metric convention.

At linear order in Newtonian gauge, free streaming, gravitational redshift, and Thomson scattering combine into a first-order transport equation for the photon temperature perturbation. The collision term drives the radiation toward its monopole plus the electron bulk-velocity dipole.

The optical depth from conformal time $\eta$ to observation at ${\eta }_0$ isThe factor $e^{-\tau (\eta )}$ is the probability that a photon travels from $\eta$ to the observer without another scattering.

The visibility functionis the probability density for the conformal time of a CMB photon's last scattering.

This probability density describes last scattering during cosmological recombination and is built from the optical depth, rather than naming the recombination process itself.

The CMB line-of-sight solution separates sharply localized last-scattering sources, weighted by the cosmological visibility function, from integrated gravitational sources weighted by $e^{-\tau }$ along the photon trajectory.

Ignoring the last-scattering angular source and later scattering, the tensor-induced temperature anisotropy is $\Theta =-\frac{1}{2}{\int }_{{\eta }_{\ast }}^{{\eta }_0}{\dot{h}}_{ij}(\eta ,{\mathbf{x}}_0-({\eta }_0-\eta )\mathbf{e})e^i{e}^{j}d\eta$. An instantaneous cosmological visibility function alone leaves a scattering source at last scattering; leading tensor tight coupling supplies the additional reason to neglect it.