Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ii Paper 2 36D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For the nonzero Christoffel symbols, apart from lower-index symmetry, arePut and . Their substitution in the Ricci tensor gives and , with all off-diagonal entries zero. Thus either every , or some exponent is nonzero andThe latter are the Kasner metric conditions; the all-zero static Minkowski solution is a separate vacuum possibility.
In an orthonormal frame the independent curvature components are proportional to and . They all vanish precisely when the exponents are all zero or a permutation of . The latter flat metric is Minkowski space in a Milne-type coordinate chart.
All three exponents cannot be strictly positive: in the nonstatic branch, , contradicting positive pairwise products. If all three are nonzero, there is exactly one negative exponent: two negative ones would force the positive one above one, violating . Therefore one scale factor contracts and two expand as increases in that branch.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 309 3 e Solution 2026-09-28
PutContracting the curvature components givesin the orthonormal frame, with no sum on . Vacuum requires and for every . Since the are not all zero, some , forcing and then . Conversely these conditions make every Ricci component vanish. Thus the Kasner metric is vacuum exactly whenso .