Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 62 1 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Dropping radiation in cosmology in the Friedmann equation givesTo evaluate this matter-vacuum conformal age integral, put . The square root in the denominator becomes , whereas . ThereforeThe radiation-free approximation is not valid arbitrarily close to the lower limit. Its extension to zero nevertheless gives a good leading conformal time estimate: the early-time correction has size , small compared with the total age when matter-radiation equality occurs sufficiently early. The apparent endpoint singularity is integrable.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 62 1 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
An object at matter-radiation equality lies at comoving radial distance in the flat FRW metric. Its angular diameter distance is , while one particle horizon radius has physical size . Its small angular radius is consequentlyThe last step uses . If , the matter-vacuum conformal age integral tends to : its integrand behaves as at zero and at infinity. Inserting the two conformal times givesThe negative matter exponent follows directly from . This agrees with the original PDF; the TeX transcription drops the minus sign. If desired, evaluates the constant through the beta function and Gamma function:The infinite-upper-limit approximation requires vacuum dominance much stronger than in the illustrative parameters of part (a), so it is an asymptotic formula rather than a precision angular prediction for those values.