Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / ii / Paper 1 / 15B / d / Solution

In the far past, $|ck\tau |\gg 1$, the term $2/{\tau }^2$ is negligible and the rescaled mode is a quantum harmonic oscillator of angular frequency $ck$. The stated choice of its ground state is the Bunch-Davies vacuum.

At late times, after the mode is far outside the Hubble scale, $|ck\tau |\ll 1$. Its variance becomesSince $P_k$ has dimensions of length cubed, the dimensionless power is proportional to $k^3{P}_k$. More precisely, with the standard isotropic Fourier convention,which is independent of the wavenumber $k$. Thus equal logarithmic intervals in $k$ carry equal late-time power. This is the sense in which inflation naturally generates a scale-invariant inflationary power spectrum.