Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 57 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Retain zeroth and first spatial-gradient orders in the long-wavelength approximation in cosmology. Spatial Ricci curvature, , and scalar anisotropic stress are of second gradient order. Put and . The supplied Einstein field equations then reduce toThe scalar-field stress projections show that the momentum constraint is a first-gradient equation and must be retained. The square is not a spatial derivative and cannot yet be dropped merely by invoking the long-wavelength approximation in cosmology. The time-derivative dot on the trace-free evolution equation is visible in the PDF and missing from the TeX aid.
Using , the last equation becomes . HenceThe time-independent spatial tensor must also satisfy the momentum constraint and the symmetry inherited from . This is inflationary shear damping: expanding regions lose anisotropic expansion, without requiring the frozen spatial metric shape to vanish. The matter evolution, useful below, is and , the leading Klein-Gordon equation in each local region.