Basics of inflationary cosmology

Abstract

The early stages of the universe evolution are discussed according to the hot big bang model and the grand unified theories. The shortcomings of big bang are summarized and their resolution by inflationary cosmology is sketched. Cosmological inflation, the subsequent oscillation and decay of the inflaton field, and the resulting reheating of the universe are studied in some detail. The density perturbations produced by inflation and the temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background radiation are introduced. The hybrid inflationary model is described. Two natural variants of the supersymmetric version of this model which avoid the disaster encountered in its standard realization from the overproduction of magnetic monopoles are presented. © 2006 IOP Publishing Ltd.