Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 57 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Put and in the squeezed bispectrum configuration. Then and the three symmetric combinations in the supplied expression have limitsThe first two terms inside the bracket cancel, leaving . The full bracket is therefore , andThe is kept in the normalization of used by the paper; it should not be introduced a second time by changing the primordial bispectrum convention.
Momentum conservation makes the three vectors close into a triangle. As , the two short-wavelength vectors approach equal magnitude and opposite direction, producing a thin, nearly collapsed triangle. In real space the mode varies slowly over a region containing many short wavelengths, so it modulates their local statistics. For a single adiabatic inflationary clock this is a local spatial dilation, the basis of the single-field inflation squeezed-limit consistency relation. If is the Hubble-flow convention , the scalar spectral index in Hubble slow-roll parameters gives to first order. This identification must not be made with the potential slow-roll without converting conventions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 310 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For the monomial inflation potential on , and . Thus, to leading slow-roll approximation,For , . Therefore the loose order-one requirements and giveThis is the interpretation under which the printed threshold follows. It is not a sufficient criterion for genuine slow roll, which requires much smaller parameters and hence for these fixed powers. Nor is its equality the actual end of acceleration for : there . For the leading estimate has . The potential-based order-one criterion also differs from the Hubble-flow criterion, especially at . We use the endpoint the paper explicitly stipulates, rather than treating this boundary as a controlled slow-roll approximation.
Let by that prescription. The slow-roll e-fold count, using , isFor , the monomial inflation with a prescribed endpoint result isApplying the leading scalar spectral index in Hubble slow-roll parameters and tensor-to-scalar ratio formulas givesThese are predictions at the chosen 60-e-fold initial point, normally identified with the pivot scale's horizon exit. A physical endpoint determined by would instead have the leading estimate ; its change to the e-fold count and predictions must not be silently mixed with the stipulated calculation.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 310 4 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The right-hand side of the slow-roll curvature power spectrum must be evaluated separately for each mode at cosmological horizon exit, . Taking logarithms givesFor ,HenceThis is the scalar spectral index in Hubble slow-roll parameters.