TASI Lectures on Inflation

Abstract

This series of lectures gives a pedagogical review of the subject of cosmological inflation. I discuss Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology and the horizon and flatness problems of the standard hot Big Bang, and introduce inflation as a solution to those problems, focusing on the simple scenario of inflation from a single scalar field. I discuss quantum modes in inflation and the generation of primordial tensor and scalar fluctuations. Finally, I provide comparison of inflationary models to the WMAP satellite measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background, and briefly discuss future directions for inflationary physics. The majority of the lectures should be accessible to advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students with only a background in Special Relativity, although familiarity with General Relativity and quantum field theory will be helpful for the more technical sections.

Lectures from the 2008 Theoretical Advanced Study Institute at Univ. of Colorado, Boulder (52 pages, 25 figures). V2: typos corrected

Cited by in corpus (44)

• Primordial Non-Gaussianities from Inflation Models
• Power-counting and the Validity of the Classical Approximation During Inflation
• Inflation, Cosmic Perturbations and Non-Gaussianities
• Preheating after Multifield Inflation with Nonminimal Couplings, I: Covariant Formalism and Attractor Behavior
• BINGO: A code for the efficient computation of the scalar bi-spectrum
• Refining inflation using non-canonical scalars
• The tensor-to-scalar ratio in punctuated inflation
• Cosmological Inflation in f(Q, T) Gravity
• Embedding inflation into the Standard Model - more evidence for classical scale invariance
• The scalar bi-spectrum in the Starobinsky model: The equilateral case
• On the scalar consistency relation away from slow roll
• Generating primordial fluctuations from modified teleparallel gravity with local Lorentz-symmetry breaking
• Phenomenological implications of modified loop cosmologies: an overview
• Inflationary Universe in Deformed Phase Space Scenario
• Consistency relation in power law G-inflation
• Primordial Power Spectra of Cosmological Fluctuations with Generalized Uncertainty Principle and Maximum Length Quantum Mechanics
• Higgs inflation with non-minimal derivative coupling to gravity
• Sharp inflaton potentials and bi-spectra: Effects of smoothening the discontinuity
• On the viability of the evolution of the universe with Geometric Inflation
• Finding origins of CMB anomalies in the inflationary quantum fluctuations
• Warm Inflation in $f(R,T)$ gravity
• FLRW cosmology in Weyl-Integrable Space-Time
• Scalar-field Pressure in Induced Gravity with Higgs Potential and Dark Matter
• Constraining ultra slow roll inflation using cosmological datasets
• Renormalization-group techniques for single-field inflation in primordial cosmology and quantum gravity
• Time Evolution of Entanglement Entropy in Holographic FLRW Cosmologies
• Quantum initial conditions for inflation and canonical invariance
• Inflationary cosmology- A new approach using Non-linear electrodynamics
• Time-dependent quantum correlations in two-dimensional expanding spacetime
• Limits on Entanglement Effects in the String Landscape from Planck and BICEP/Keck Data
• Geometrical measures of non-Gaussianity generated from single field Inflationary models
• Holographic time-dependent entanglement entropy in $p$-brane gas geometries
• A class of simple bouncing and late-time accelerating cosmologies in f(R) gravity
• Dark Energy and Inflation with Volume Normalized Action
• Cosmological Perturbations without Inflation
• The exact solution approach to warm inflation
• Phenomenological inflationary model in Supersymmetric Quantum Cosmology
• The Dark Side of ${\theta }_{13}$, ${\delta }_{CP}$, Leptogenesis and Inflation in Type-I Seesaw
• A Numerical Simulation of Chern-Simons Inflation
• Non-canonical scalar field in low anisotropy universe with intermediate inflation
• Bosonic (p - 1)-forms in Einstein-Cartan theory of gravity
• Non-minimally coupled scalar field and scaling symmetry in a cosmological background
• Inflationary study of non-Gaussianity using two-dimensional geometrical measures of CMB temperature maps
• Inflation in a Gaussian Random Landscape