Growth-time form of cosmological dust equations ($D_b\mathbf{u}=-\frac{3{\Omega }_m}{2b{f}^2}(\mathbf{u}+\nabla \psi )$)

Use a monotone linear growth factor $b(t)$ as time, $\mathbf{u}=\dot{\mathbf{x}}/\dot{b}$, and $\psi =a\phi /(Cb)$ with $C=3H_0^2{\Omega }_{m0}/2$ and $a_0=1$. The cosmological Poisson equation becomes ${\nabla }^2\psi =\delta /b$; the continuity equation becomes ${\partial }_b\delta +\nabla \cdot [(1+\delta )\mathbf{u}]=0$. The material derivative is $D_b={\partial }_b+\mathbf{u}\cdot \nabla$. Substitution into the pressureless cosmological Euler equation, followed by the growth equation and $\dot{b}=Hbf$, proves the displayed motion equation, with $f=d\ln b/d\ln a$. The density derivative in the conservative continuity equation is Eulerian, not material.

For a pure scalar growing density contrast with time-independent boundary conditions, ${\nabla }^2\psi ={\delta }_{\ast }$ fixes the scaled peculiar gravitational potential up to an irrelevant constant. The linearized continuity equation fixes the longitudinal scaled velocity to $-\nabla \psi$. The remaining homogeneous velocity is ${\mathbf{u}}_h=\mathbf{C}(\mathbf{x})/(a^2\dot{b})$; a divergence-free such field does not change the growing density at linear order. Excluding this decaying velocity component is necessary for time-independent $\mathbf{u}$. In an Einstein-de Sitter universe, $b=a$ and ${\mathbf{u}}_h\propto a^{-3/2}$, furnishing a counterexample if the pure growing-velocity hypothesis is omitted.