inflation

Haelfix

A few misconceptions...

'Slow roll' is not necessary for inflation, it is however if there was only one round of inflation (but not two), it is an approximation in the differential eqns.

The original inflation model was taken to be the form of the Higgs particle (also minimally a scalar field), unfortunately it does not work. There is no way to end inflation with that model.

Nowdays, a veritable industry has gone into postulating the shape of the inflaton potential. There are literally hundreds of ways inflation can take place, none of them have much to do with particle physics as it currently stands.

As has been said before, generically its a way to cause exponential expansion of space-time, in order to smooth out any inhomogenities of matter fields, such that it ends up looking like what we see today.

The problem is always the same. Only the last few efolds carry observational consequence, so its very hard to falsify the hundreds of inflation models (only one of course can be correct). Only extremely sensitive probes of the CMB and galaxy structure can reveal differences, which is going to be a huge enterprise of Astronomy for the next 20 or so years.