Use units and take the initially expanding branch with ordinary positive matter or radiation density. In the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric, respectively describe positive, zero and negative spatial curvature. Separately conserved pressureless matter has and radiation in cosmology has , so either dominates the curvature and vacuum terms sufficiently far back on a hot Big Bang branch.
With negligible cosmological constant, a spatially flat radiation universe has and a flat matter universe has ; both expand forever while decelerating. An open universe also expands forever and eventually becomes approximately curvature dominated, with . A closed universe containing only ordinary matter/radiation reaches a maximum size and recollapses. For example, dust gives with , so only admits the positive turning point .
Curvature alone does not determine the fate when the cosmological constant is retained. Positive can cause late accelerated expansion and prevent even a closed universe from recollapsing; whether a closed expanding branch turns around depends on the relative matter and vacuum terms. Negative can cause recollapse even for flat or open spatial sections. These statements follow by inspecting for dust; the curvature sign is a geometrical classification, not by itself a universal destiny criterion.
Define the critical density and cosmological density parameters , , and . The Friedmann equation gives . Dividing the Friedmann acceleration equation by gives
Consequently
The deceleration parameter measures the sign and size of the acceleration relative to : means deceleration, accelerated expansion and instantaneously zero acceleration. In particular a falling Hubble parameter alone does not imply deceleration, since .
For conformal time , the conformal Hubble parameter is . Using matter conservation and differentiating ,
This is the matter density flow with a cosmological constant. Neglecting during matter domination reduces it to the requested relation
That last equation is not exact with nonzero . For example, a flat dust-plus-vacuum state with gives , whereas the matter-only expression gives .
For the flatness problem, let . Curvature satisfies , so
In decelerating near-flat radiation and matter eras, deviations therefore grow as and respectively. Maintaining small curvature at a late epoch requires very small early deviations unless a prior mechanism suppresses them. Cosmic inflation, with , drives the deviation down approximately as . If vacuum energy is present, flatness means , not .