A note on the (non-)conservation of curvature perturbation

Abstract

In this note, we compare two different definitions for the cosmological perturbation $\zeta$ which is conserved on large scales, and study their non-conservation on small scales. We derive an equation for the time evolution of the curvature perturbation on a uniform density slice through a calculation solely in longitudinal (conformal-Newtonian) gauge. The result is concise and compatible with that obtained via local conservation of energy-momentum tensor.

Comments: 9 pages, version to be published in the Chinese Journal of Physics