Putting Cosmological Inflation to the Test

Cosmological Inflation is one of the leading paradigms for explaining the

physical conditions that prevailed in the early Universe. It consists in a 

phase of very high energy accelerated expansion that solves the hot 

big bang model problems. When combined with Quantum Mechanics, 

it also provides a causal mechanism for generating cosmological fluctuations 

on large scales. 

 

In this talk I will explain how the most up-to-date cosmological observations, 

incorporated in the Bayesian model comparison approach, can be used to 

extract the favoured models among hundreds of proposed scenarios. 

I will insist on the role played by reheating, which connects inflation to

the subsequent radiation era, and during which ordinary matter as we see it 

today is produced. I will also discuss some extensions to the

minimal single-field setups, where extra scalar fields are added and play

a role both during inflation and reheating.