Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 55 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
In Newtonian gauge, the coordinate-comoving observer has normalized four-velocity , hence . In the convention the measured photon energy is . Thus to first order
Use the time component of the geodesic equation and divide by :Let and take the photon path direction at zeroth order. The left side divided by is . The contraction on the right side, using the provided connection coefficients, isThe homogeneous expansion cancels. Therefore the scalar photon energy-redshift law isThe total derivative is on the unperturbed ray. Perturbing that path inside a first-order potential would contribute only at second order. The homogeneous energy redshift is already removed by the comoving momentum variable .