Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 50 / 3 / c / Solution

With vanishing extrinsic curvature, the momentum constraint is identically satisfied and the vacuum Hamiltonian constraint reduces to $\mathcal{R}=0$. To evaluate that Ricci scalar, write ${\psi }_i={\partial }_i\psi$, raise these intermediate indices with ${\delta }^{ij}$, and use ${\gamma }^{ij}={\psi }^{-4}{\delta }^{ij}$. The Levi-Civita connection isSubstitution into the stated curvature convention givesTracing with ${\gamma }^{ij}$ cancels the gradient-square terms:Here the Laplacian and norm on the right are those of the flat Euclidean metric. Thus the time-symmetric conformally flat vacuum initial data constraints becomeThe equivalence uses $\psi \ne 0$. This identity is also the three-dimensional specialization of scalar curvature under conformal rescaling; locally the conformal exponent is $2\log |\psi |$, so either fixed nonzero sign of $\psi$ gives the same metric.