Past exam of the relativity course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / Section B / 4 / a

A fundamental observer follows the coarse-grained cosmological matter, with fixed comoving coordinates. The cosmological principle asserts spatial homogeneity and cosmological isotropy on large scales for this family of observers. A moving observer generally sees a preferred direction, for example a Doppler dipole in the cosmic microwave background, even when the underlying cosmology is isotropic.

In an FLRW metric, these worldlines are orthogonal to homogeneous spatial slices. Synchronize their clocks to define cosmic time $t$, which is their proper time. Along a fixed spatial label, $d{s}^2=c^{2}d{t}^2$, giving $g_{tt}=c^2$. Orthogonality of the spatial coordinate directions to the observers' four-velocity gives $g_{ti}=0$. Thus, in the $+---$ metric signature,where the spatial matrix $g_{ij}$ is negative definite. Spatial homogeneity and cosmological isotropy further restrict it to $-a(t{)}^2{\gamma }_{ij}(\mathbf{x})$, with $\gamma$ a constant-curvature spatial metric.