Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / iii / Paper 312 / 1 / a / Solution

The Euler-Lagrange equation isAfter a spatial Fourier transform and the change to conformal time, ${\partial }_t=a^{-1}{\partial }_{\tau }$, this becomesFor the exact de Sitter spacetime scale factor $a=-1/(H\tau )$, one has $a^{\prime \prime }/a=2a^2{H}^2$. Setting $u_{\mathbf{k}}=a{\phi }_{\mathbf{k}}$ therefore cancels both the friction term and the effective mass term, leavingThis is the special cancellation for a conformally coupled scalar field.