Closed constant-equation-of-state conformal lifetime Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
For positive curvature and zero cosmological constant, the single-fluid Friedmann solution has a bang-to-crunch conformal time interval for . A radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime travels that same great-circle comoving distance. Relative to a three-sphere circumference , it is circuits: one for dust and one half for radiation, with the final point reached only in the singular-endpoint limit.
Cosmological redshift Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The cosmological redshift is the stretching of a freely propagating photon's wavelength between emission at cosmic time and reception at in an FLRW metric. For a comoving observer at each endpoint,Here are emitted and received wavelengths, and are the corresponding frequencies. A positive cosmological redshift means that the scale factor grew while the photon travelled. The name describes a shift toward longer wavelengths; it applies to light beyond the visible range as well.
For a computed example, let the scale factor double from to . An emitted wavelength of becomes , giving . The received frequency is half the emitted frequency. This determines a ratio of spatial rulers, not a recession speed: using as an actual velocity at is unjustified. The wavelength panel in the illustration under Hubble's law shows this doubling.
A short derivation follows successive wave crests along a radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime. Their source and receiver have fixed comoving coordinates, so each crest traverses the same comoving distance:Shift both endpoint times to the next crest while keeping fixed. To first order in the very short periods , this gives . Locally, wavelength equals the speed of light times the crest period, yielding the displayed cosmological redshift relation. These periods are much shorter than the timescale on which the scale factor changes.
The relation isolates the smooth expansion contribution. An observed redshift can also contain a Doppler effect from source or observer peculiar velocity and a gravitational redshift. See combined kinematic and cosmological redshift for the multiplicative combination of endpoint motion and expansion. Treating every observed redshift as pure cosmological redshift can therefore misassign a nearby source's distance.
The useful insight is that a received wavelength ratio records how much the scale factor changed during the photon's journey. Turning that ratio into a distance requires an expansion history, through the Hubble parameter, and a specified convention such as luminosity distance or proper distance in cosmology; the ratio alone supplies neither.
Low-redshift acceleration cosmography 2026-10-18
A local derivation makes the acceleration sign transparent. Normalize and put . A Taylor series givesThe radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime gives . Invert the redshift series, use through second order, and obtain the displayed luminosity distance. Spatial curvature of an FLRW universe first changes this relation at third order. Lower therefore means larger at a fixed sufficiently small positive redshift and common .
Past exam of the general relativity II course of the University of Oxford 2015 3 e ii Solution 2026-10-25
Take the expanding flat branch , with . A radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime satisfies . For the incoming past light cone of the spacetime event , integration giveswith arbitrary angular direction. Equivalently, conformal time gives .
Let the reception time tend to infinity. The largest comoving radial distance from which a signal emitted at time can reach the central comoving observer isThus the cosmological event horizon has constant proper distance in cosmology:An emitted spacetime event is seen at a finite time if and only if . Equality would require , while an event with never reaches the observer. This is a bound on events at their emission time; a fixed comoving observer can have earlier visible events and later invisible ones.
The boundary really is a null hypersurface. For , its normal has components and , soThe finite future integral, and hence this observer event horizon, uses the expanding branch. For the contracting flat solution , the same integral diverges and there is no future observer event horizon of this kind; the static zero-density solution likewise has none.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 73 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime, the FRW metric gives . The emitter and receiver have fixed comoving coordinates, so two successive wave crests satisfy the same comoving radial distance relation:Subtracting the two expressions in the short-wave-period limit yields . Comoving observers measure these intervals as proper time; since ,For a fixed reception epoch, the cosmological redshift factor is inversely proportional to the emission scale factor. This also shows the associated cosmological time dilation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 48 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use conformal time, , and let primes mean . Then and . For , , the Friedmann equation and acceleration equation giveSubstitution yieldsUse the supplied solution without deriving it. Its first maximum has sine equal to one, so its amplitude must equal the physical turnaround scale in part (a):Choose the expanding branch with and the first zero at .
For pressureless matter, , the closed matter-dominated Friedmann solution isThe Big Crunch is at , or proper time , measured from the Big Bang.
A radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime obeys . The spatial slice is a unit three-sphere times , so a great circle has comoving circumference . The dust lifetime supplies conformal distance : one circumference, with the return occurring only in the crunch limit. Strictly before the singular endpoint no full return is completed. The radiation lifetime supplies conformal distance : the photon reaches the antipode, half a great circle, in the crunch limit. These are limiting null rays from near the initial singularity, not photons at a regular event on the singular surface.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 312 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let and let differentiate along the unperturbed photon trajectory. Use to decompose the Thomson scattering gain term:The Orthogonality of Legendre polynomials identifies as a pure photon quadrupole. Dropping is an approximation, justified when tight coupling makes the scattering quadrupole small; the supplied unpolarized equation already neglects polarization corrections. The Cosmic microwave background line-of-sight solution requested here omits that quadrupole source.
Set . Adding to the Photon Boltzmann equation with Thomson scattering yieldsAlong , the integrating factor is because . ConsequentlyAn early optically thick boundary makes vanish for finite initial perturbations, and . ThereforeHere and are partial time derivatives, not total derivatives along the ray. We work at first order in scalar cosmological perturbations, evaluate sources along the background radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime, and ignore observer peculiar velocity. Perturbed paths and lensing affect this first-order source solution only at higher perturbative order. A moving observer adds its local Doppler dipole.
The original PDF, unlike the transcribed TeX, also asks for the instantaneous-last-scattering limit and its interpretation. For with no later scattering, and a matter-era growing mode with constant and , the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect vanishes. HenceThe four terms are the intrinsic emission temperature, the gravitational potential at emission, the observer's potential, and the Doppler CMB anisotropy. The two potentials describe the gravitational redshift; the observer term is independent of direction and is absorbed into the measured temperature monopole. The intrinsic temperature and emission potential form the Sachs-Wolfe combination. On superhorizon scales for adiabatic initial conditions in matter domination, , giving the ordinary Sachs-Wolfe effect . The Doppler sign is positive with the paper's propagation direction ; the viewing direction is .
Worked supernova distance comparison 2026-10-18
Stipulate and , so . A megaparsec is parsecs. Neglect radiation in cosmology. Compare an accelerating flat model , an open matter-only model and the Einstein-de Sitter universe . Their present deceleration parameters are respectively , and . For these models,Here is dimensionless; the radial null geodesic in FLRW spacetime supplies its integral and spatial curvature of an FLRW universe supplies . The observer-to-source comoving radial distance is , whereas the transverse distance uses . Omitting the latter distinction would bias the open-model comparison.
At , numerical integration gives for the flat accelerating model and for the open matter-only model. ThusThe accelerating model is mag fainter than the open matter-only prediction at the same redshift and standardized absolute magnitude, corresponding to times the luminosity distance and times the radiative flux. These are model calculations, not observations from either collaboration.
The Milne model has , and , giving and . The Einstein-de Sitter luminosity-distance relation independently checks the flat matter-only integral. At , the accelerating model exceeds the Milne model by only mag, illustrating the dependence of a residual on the chosen reference. Over a longer redshift interval, luminosity distance integrates past deceleration as well as recent acceleration; a residual need not increase forever.
Multiplying by at fixed density fractions divides every by and shifts every distance modulus by . The predicted apparent magnitude is unchanged if simultaneously increases by . This is the absolute magnitude–Hubble constant degeneracy. For example, shifts by mag and by mag. Relative curves at the same retain their separation; determining requires an external absolute magnitude calibration.
