Cosmological Inflation

Motivation: The Standard Cosmology and its Discontents

• successes
• questions/loose ends
  • horizon problem
  • smoothness problem
  • flatness problem
  • lumpiness problem
  • monopole problem
• compare: Standard Model of Particle Physics
  • great qualitative, quantitative successes
  • but points beyond itself:
    supersymmetry
    grand unification
    quantum gravity/Planck epoch

Inflation Scenarios

• initial conditions:
  Linde's chaotic inflaton field
• scalar field dominance (Guth 1981)
• slow roll
• graceful exit
• reheating