Energy-momentum tensor of fields in the standard cosmology

Abstract

With the use of the equations of motion of massless fields moving in a curved Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe, we show, in some simple cases, that the energy-momentum tensor of a maximally 3-space symmetric distribution of the fields (i.e., an incoherent averaging over a complete set of modes of the field propagating in a Robertson-Walker background) has the standard perfect fluid form. As far as we know such an explicit demonstration, as well as the establishment of the compatibility of the equations of motion of the gravitational field with such an incoherently averaged source in the standard cosmology, has not previously been presented in the literature. Our results are found to hold for any value of the spatial curvature of the universe.