Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 37E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For pressureless matter, and part (a) gives . With , the Friedmann equation becomesorThis is the case of the Friedmann effective potential for pressureless matter. The potential rises monotonically from at to zero from below as .
For , intersects the potential at . An initially expanding closed matter-dominated Friedmann solution reaches this turning point and recollapses to a Big Crunch. For , gives expansion for all time with and . For , gives eternal expansion with in these units. Thus positive curvature recollapses, whereas zero and negative curvature expand forever.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 37E c i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
With and , the Friedmann effective potential for pressureless matter isAlthough has one maximum, it is negative, so lies above it and never vanishes. An initially small expanding universe therefore expands forever. At large ,so the expansion approaches the exponential de Sitter scale factor in flat slicing. There is no turning point.