PHY6311 Physical Cosmology, Spring 2016

Exercise sheet 7 Dr. K. Malik

These questions are designed to help you understand the material covered in the lectu-
res. Exercise sheets will typically be made available online before the Thursday lectureon
Wednesday. Please hand the solutions in by the following Thursday, 1600. Put your full
name and student number on the top of your solutions.

1. Suppose that at a temperature corresponding to the Grand Unified era, Ti =

3 × 1028 K, monopoles are created with an initial density ρmon,i = 10−10 ρrad,i . At
what temperature does the monopole density equal the radiation density? What
would the value of Ωmon,0 /Ωrad,0 be? [Hint: this is similar to the calculation of the
epoch of matter-radiation equality.]

How many e-foldings of inflation are required to dilute the monopole density so that
Ωmon,0 /Ωrad,0 = 1. [You can assume that during inflation the total energy density
remains constant, and is converted into radiation at the end of inflation, so that the
radiation density at the end of inflation equals that at the beginning.]
[20 pts.]

2. Consider a simplified model of the history of a flat universe involving a period of

inflation. The history is split into 4 periods: (a) 0 < t < t3 radiation only; (b)
t3 < t < t2 inflation occurs due to domination of vacuum energy, with an effective
cosmological constant Λc2 = 4t32 ; (c) t2 < t < t1 a period of radiation domination;
3
(d) t1 < t < t0 matter domination.

(i) Show that during epoch (c) ρr (t) = 3/(32πGt2 ) and during (d) ρm (t) = 1/(6πGt2 ).
[Hint: use the fact that in a flat universe Ω = ρ/ρc = 1 to obtain a relationship bet-
ween ρ and H, and then insert the time dependences of the Hubble parameter during
radiation and matter domination respectively into this equation.]

(ii) Give simple analytical formulae for a(t) which are approximately true in these
four phases.
[Hint: use the fact that a = a3 at t = t3 to find the normalisation of your expression
for epoch (b).]
(iii) Show that, during the inflationary phase (b) the universe expands by a factor
 
a(t2 ) t2 − t3
= exp
a(t3 ) 2t3

[Hint: you’ll need to use the expression for Λ in terms of t3 you were given at the
beginning of the question.]

(iv) Use your expression for ρr (t) from part (i) and the fact that at the end of epoch
(a) at t = t3
Λc2 8πGρr (t3 )
= ,
3 3
to find an expression for Λc2 in terms of t2 , t3 and ρr (t2 ).

(v) By considering how ρr /ρm varies during matter domination, and using your
results from part (i), show that
 2/3
ρr (t0 ) 9 t1
= .
ρm (t0 ) 16 t0

(vi) If t3 = 10−35 seconds, t2 = 10−32 seconds, t1 = 104 years and t0 = 1010 years
sketch log a against log t marking any important epochs.

(vii) How, qualitatively, does the cosmological horizon behave during each epoch?
How does the period of inflation ‘solve’ the horizon problem?
[80 pts.]