Inflationary initial conditions consistent with causality

The initial condition problem of inflation is examined from the perspective of both spacetime embedding and scalar field dynamics. The spacetime embedding problem is solved for arbitrary initial spatial curvature Omega, which generalizes previous works that primarily treat the flat case Omega = 1. Scalar field dynamics that is consistent with the embedding constraints is examined, with the additional treatment of damping effects. The effects of inhomogeneities on the embedding problem also are considered. A category of initial conditions is identified that is not acausal and can develop into an inflationary regime.