Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1991. 29: 325-362 Copyright © 1991 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved

Reprinted with kind permission from Annual Reviews, 4139 El Camino Way, Palo Alto, California, USA

Key Words: early universe, cosmology

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• THE STANDARD MODEL AND ITS DIFFICULTIES
• The Friedman-Robertson-Walker Model with a Hot Big Bang
• Some Puzzling Features of the FRW Models
• The Horizon Problem
• The Flatness Problem
• Monopoles
• Domain Walls
• Smoothness Problem
• The Λ-Term
• The Problem of Formation of Structures
• THE CONCEPT OF INFLATION
• The Basic Mechanism
• The Epicycles of Inflation
• Historical Comment
• THE PROBLEM OF STRUCTURE FORMATION
• The Scale Invariant Spectrum
• Origin of Density Perturbations
• A Critique of Inflation: Expectations and Performance
• INFLATION AND DARK MATTER
• THE COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
• OUTLOOK
• REFERENCES