Past exam of the cosmology course of the University of Oxford / 2025 / 2 / d / Solution

The $\nu =0$ result is the background cosmological perfect-fluid continuity equation. For a comoving region of physical volume proportional to $a^3$, it is preciselyexpressing local conservation of energy including the pressure-volume work done during cosmic expansion. A transverse vector field has no velocity divergence, and the vector spatial metric tensor has no trace perturbation, so neither produces a first-order compression or density change.

The spatial result is vector-fluid momentum dilution and integrates immediately:Thus, for any specified background perfect fluid,A statement about $\mathbf{q}$ alone does not fix the velocity scaling independently of the equation of state. For constant equation-of-state parameter $w\ne -1$, the cosmological continuity equation gives $\bar{\rho }\propto a^{-3(1+w)}$ and henceFor pressureless matter, $w=0$ and ${\mathbf{v}}_{\perp }\propto a^{-1}$, exactly as in the Newtonian calculation in part (a). For radiation in cosmology, $w=1/3$ and the vector peculiar velocity remains constant, although its momentum density still falls as $a^{-4}$. More generally, for a barotropic perfect fluid with cosmological adiabatic sound speed $c_a^2={\bar{P}}^{\prime }/{\bar{\rho }}^{\prime }$, the equivalent equation is ${\mathbf{v}}_{\perp }^{\prime }+\mathcal{H}(1-3c_a^2){\mathbf{v}}_{\perp }=0$. The Newtonian damping law describes nonrelativistic inertia; it need not apply to a relativistic perfect fluid. A pure cosmological constant has $\bar{\rho }+\bar{P}=0$ and supplies no such fluid velocity degree of freedom.