Paper 1, Section II, C

Cosmology
Part II, 2015

A closed universe contains black-body radiation, has a positive cosmological constant Λ\Lambda, and is governed by the equation

a˙2a2=Γa41a2+Λ3,\frac{\dot{a}^{2}}{a^{2}}=\frac{\Gamma}{a^{4}}-\frac{1}{a^{2}}+\frac{\Lambda}{3},

where a(t)a(t) is the scale factor and Γ\Gamma is a positive constant. Using the substitution y=a2y=a^{2} and the boundary condition y(0)=0y(0)=0, deduce the boundary condition for y˙(0)\dot{y}(0) and show that

y¨=4Λ3y2\ddot{y}=\frac{4 \Lambda}{3} y-2

and hence that

a2(t)=32Λ[1cosh(4Λ3t)+λsinh(4Λ3t)]a^{2}(t)=\frac{3}{2 \Lambda}\left[1-\cosh \left(\sqrt{\frac{4 \Lambda}{3}} t\right)+\lambda \sinh \left(\sqrt{\frac{4 \Lambda}{3}} t\right)\right]

Express the constant λ\lambda in terms of Λ\Lambda and Γ\Gamma.

Sketch the graphs of a(t)a(t) for the cases λ>1\lambda>1 and 0<λ<10<\lambda<1.