(a) Consider the following action for the inflaton field $\phi$

$$S=\int \mathrm{d}^{3} x \mathrm{~d} t a(t)^{3}\left[\frac{1}{2} \dot{\phi}^{2}-\frac{c^{2}}{2 a(t)^{2}} \nabla \phi \cdot \nabla \phi-V(\phi)\right]$$

Use the principle of least action to derive the equation of motion for the inflaton $\phi$,

$$\ddot{\phi}+3 H \dot{\phi}-\frac{c^{2}}{a(t)^{2}} \nabla^{2} \phi+\frac{\mathrm{d} V(\phi)}{\mathrm{d} \phi}=0$$

where $H=\dot{a} / a$. [In the derivation you may discard boundary terms.]

(b) Consider a regime where $V(\phi)$ is approximately constant so that the universe undergoes a period of exponential expansion during which $a=a_{0} e^{H_{\text {inf }} t}$. Show that $(*)$ can be written in terms of the spatial Fourier transform $\widehat{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}(t)$ of $\phi(\mathbf{x}, t)$ as

$$\ddot{\widehat{\phi}}_{\mathbf{k}}+3 H_{\mathrm{inf}} \dot{\hat{\phi}}_{\mathbf{k}}+\frac{c^{2} k^{2}}{a^{2}} \widehat{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}=0 .$$

(c) Define conformal time $\tau$ and determine the range of $\tau$ when $a=a_{0} e^{H_{\text {inf }} t}$. Show that $(* *)$ can be written in terms of the conformal time as

$$\frac{\mathrm{d}^{2} \tilde{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}}{\mathrm{d} \tau^{2}}+\left(c^{2} k^{2}-\frac{2}{\tau^{2}}\right) \widetilde{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}=0, \quad \text { where } \quad \tilde{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}=-\frac{1}{H_{\mathrm{inf}} \tau} \widehat{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}$$

(d) Let $|\mathrm{BD}\rangle$ denote the state that in the far past was in the ground state of the standard harmonic oscillator with frequency $\omega=c k$. Assuming that the quantum variance of $\widehat{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}$ is given by

$$P_{\mathbf{k}} \equiv\left\langle\mathrm{BD}\left|\widehat{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}} \widehat{\phi}_{\mathbf{k}}^{\dagger}\right| \mathrm{BD}\right\rangle=\frac{\hbar H_{\mathrm{inf}}^{2}}{2 c^{3} k^{3}}\left(1+\tau^{2} c^{2} k^{2}\right)$$

explain in which sense inflation naturally generates a scale-invariant power spectrum. [You may use that $P_{\mathbf{k}}$ has dimensions of [length $\left.]^{3} .\right]$