New approach to the evolution of cosmological perturbations on large scales

We discuss the evolution of linear perturbations about a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background metric, using only the local conservation of energy momentum. We show that on sufficiently large scales the curvature perturbation on spatial hypersurfaces of uniform density is conserved when the non-adiabatic pressure perturbation is negligible. This is the first time that this result has been demonstrated independently of the gravitational field equations. A physical picture of long-wavelength perturbations as being composed of separate Robertson-Walker universes gives a simple understanding of the possible evolution of the curvature perturbation, in particular clarifying the conditions under which super-horizon curvature perturbations may vary.