The very early universe

Abstract

The universe at very early times, before the GUT era, is discussed. The entropy problem is described. The horizon and flatness problems are subsumed into the general problem of finding plausible models of the physics of the Planck era or the era immediately after it. An outline of inflationary cosmology is given, including quantitative treatment of a scalar inflaton field, treated in both a classical and quantum approach, in order to find the average dynamics and the spectrum of perturbations, respectively.