An introduction to cosmological inflation

TL;DR

This paper provides an accessible overview of inflationary cosmology, explaining its historical background, modeling, and significance in explaining the origin of cosmic structure, along with current observational insights.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive introduction to inflationary theory, highlighting its role in structure formation and summarizing recent observational developments.

Findings

Inflation explains the origin of cosmic structure.

Current observations support inflationary models.

The paper discusses future observational prospects.

Abstract

An introductory account is given of the inflationary cosmology, which postulates a period of accelerated expansion during the Universe's earliest stages. The historical motivation is briefly outlined, and the modelling of the inflationary epoch explained. The most important aspect of inflation is that it provides a possible model for the origin of structure in the Universe, and key results are reviewed, along with a discussion of the current observational situation and outlook.