A frame representation is used to derive a first order quasi-linear symmetric
hyperbolic system for a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity. This
procedure is inspired by similar evolution equations introduced by Friedrich to
study the Einstein-Euler system. The resulting evolution system is used to show
that small nonlinear perturbations of expanding
Friedman-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker backgrounds, with scalar field potentials
satisfying certain future asymptotic conditions, decay exponentially to zero,
in synchronous time.Comment: Version 4: Matches final published versio