Write physical position as and physical velocity as
Subtract the homogeneous expanding background from the pressureless Euler equation. To linear order in peculiar velocity and density contrast, the convective term is negligible and
or
Here differentiates with respect to comoving position and is the peculiar gravitational potential.
The linear continuity and Poisson equations are
For the growing mode , matter conservation gives , so the potential scales as
after absorbing the fiducial normalization into . Integrating the linear Euler equation with a negligible decaying mode gives
Taking the divergence of Euler and using continuity and Poisson yields the linear growth equation
In the fiducial normalization used in the question this can be rearranged as
The cosmological Lagrangian displacement obeys . Combining the last two relations and choosing the growing displacement gives the Zeldovich approximation
Define
Then and . Keeping the lowest nonvanishing order in displacement in the halo angular momentum gives
The angular momentum vanishes for a spherical Lagrangian patch, and also whenever the patch's inertia principal axes align with the local tidal-field principal axes. It likewise vanishes in a locally isotropic tidal field.
Taylor-expand
The constant-gradient term vanishes by the barycentre definition. With
one obtains the tidal torque theory result
is the protohalo inertia tensor and is the local tidal, or gravitational Hessian, tensor. Their eigenframe misalignment produces the torque.
In an Einstein-de Sitter universe, . Hence and
This linear estimate is normally stopped near turnaround. Simulated haloes subsequently gain angular momentum through nonlinear torques, anisotropic accretion, and mergers, including the orbital angular momentum of infalling subhaloes, so the early linear estimate underpredicts the final value.