Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2015 / iii / Paper 55 / 4 / b / Solution

In the tight-coupling approximation, the Thomson-scattering rate ${\Gamma }_T=-{\tau }^{\prime }$ is much faster than both spatial streaming and cosmological evolution: $k/{\Gamma }_T\ll 1$ and $\mathcal{H}/{\Gamma }_T\ll 1$. Frequent scattering locks the photon and baryon velocities and suppresses higher angular multipoles. The photon dipole is leading order, while the photon quadrupole is first order in the mean-free-time expansion.

Use the quadrupole equation. Its time derivative is smaller than its collision term by an additional expansion parameter, and ${\Theta }_3$ starts one order beyond ${\Theta }_2$. The leading balance is thereforeThus for the temperature-only collision operator supplied here,The temperature-only tight-coupling quadrupole is not numerically interchangeable with a hierarchy that includes polarization feedback. The latter changes the leading collision coefficient and gives the existing photon quadrupole in tight coupling with polarization instead. Here the stated temperature-only approximation is the one being expanded.