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Article Contents

ABSTRACT

1.INTRODUCTION

2.MOTIVATING INFLATION: THE COSMOLOGICAL FEATURES/PROBLEMS

2.1.The Standard Big Bang

2.2.The Flatness Feature

2.3.The Homogeneity Feature

2.4.The Horizon Feature

2.5.When the Features become Problems

2.6.The Monopole Problem

3.THE MACHINERY OF INFLATION AND WHAT IT CAN DO

3.1.The potential dominated state

3.2.A simple inflationary cosmology: Solving the problems

3.3.Mechanisms for producing inflation

3.4.The start of inflation

3.5.Perturbations

3.6.Further remarks

4.COSMIC COHERENCE

4.1.Key ingredients

4.2.A toy model

4.3.The results of coherence

5.PREDICTIONS

5.1.Flatness

5.2.Coherence

5.3.Perturbation spectrum and other specifics

6.THE BIG PICTURE AND OPEN QUESTIONS

7.CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES