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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.OVERVIEW

2.BIG BANG PROBLEMS AND THE IDEA OF INFLATION

2.1.A hot big bang reminder

2.2.Equations of motion

2.3.Standard cosmological solutions

2.4.Critical density and the density parameter

2.5.Characteristic scales and horizons

2.6.Redshift and temperature

2.7.The history of the Universe

3.PROBLEMS WITH THE BIG BANG

3.1.The flatness problem

3.2.The horizon problem

3.3.The monopole problem (and other relics)

4.THE IDEA OF INFLATION

4.1.The flatness problem

4.2.Relic abundances

4.3.The horizon problem and homogeneity

5.MODELLING THE INFLATIONARY EXPANSION

5.1.Scalar fields and their potentials

5.2.Equations of motion and solutions

5.3.The relation between inflation and slow-roll

5.4.The amount of inflation

5.5.A worked example: polynomial chaotic inflation

5.6.Reheating after inflation

5.7.The range of inflation models

5.7.1.Chaotic inflation models

5.7.2.Multi-field theories

5.7.3.Beyond general relativity

5.7.4.Open inflation

5.8.Recap

6.DENSITY PERTURBATIONS AND GRAVITATIONAL WAVES

6.1.Production during inflation

6.2.A worked example

6.3.Observational consequences

6.4.Testing the idea of inflation

7.THE INFLATIONARY ORIGIN OF STRUCTURE

7.1.The parameters

7.2.The inflationary energy scale

7.3.Beyond the energy scale

8.SUMMARY

REFERENCES