Use and the Fourier convention . A valid linearization requires all components of to be small: the printed small-determinant condition alone is insufficient, as the matrix has zero determinant without being small. This is small determinant does not imply a small metric perturbation.
Define the density contrast and the scalar velocity potential by , or . Hence . To first order, , and . The product is second order. Substitution into the perfect fluid stress-energy tensor gives
Here the equation of state is used locally, so the pressure perturbation is .
The contraction in is
Using the displayed connections gives, through first order,
In particular ; the spatial connection contraction adds , while differentiating supplies . Subtract the background relation . The background terms multiplying cancel, leaving
For comoving cold dark matter, and , so and is constant at each spatial point. The proper-volume element of a comoving cell is . Conserved mass in the cell then gives the density change opposite to the perturbation of its volume. In comoving synchronous coordinates the linear CDM density change is a volume change, not transport across cell boundaries.
In synchronous gauge in cosmology, , so the explicit metric terms vanish. Symmetry of the covariant energy-momentum tensor and the background metric imply
Hence the two expansion terms in part (c) combine to . Substituting the scalar velocity potential and scalar anisotropic stress definitions gives