In the constant- de Sitter approximation, with , so . The massive rescaled mode obeys
For a fixed mass in the specified open interval, at sufficiently late superhorizon scales with , the term is negligible compared with the inverse-square term in the limiting equation. Try . The indicial equation is , giving
Thus both independent branches of the massive de Sitter superhorizon scalar mode are present in
The coefficients are constant in time and fixed by initial conditions. Writing avoids ambiguous fractional powers of the negative number ; a chosen complex phase in the printed notation can be absorbed into the coefficients.
For the specified mass range, . The physical fluctuation is , so its two branches behave as and . Both exponents are strictly positive. Therefore both physical-field branches decay as :
The slower branch of itself grows because , but the expanding scale factor more than cancels that growth. A spatially homogeneous background field of this mass satisfies the corresponding equation and also has these decaying powers.