Xth School of Cosmology
  5 -10 July 2010 at IESC, Cargèse
 The Cosmic Microwave Background at High Angular Resolution

Inflation

Paolo CREMINELLI
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)

Course Chapters
  1. The necessity of inflation: classical theory
  2. Inflation and quantum mechanics: perturbations
  3. Observables and predictions
Abstract   
 We will start discussing the motivations for the theory of inflation and its simplest realization: slow-roll inflation. We will then study the perturbations induced by quantum mechanics and the resulting spectrum of scalar and tensor perturbations, focussing on the observable quantities: the spectral indices and the tensor to scalar ratio.
Bibliography
  • The Inflationary Universe: A Possible Solution to the Horizon and Flatness Problems
    Alan H. Guth,  Phys.Rev.D23:347-356,1981.
  • TASI Lectures on Inflation
    Daniel Baumann,  arXiv:0907.5424 [hep-th]

Program