GENERALIZED SCALAR FIELD POTENTIALS AND INFLATION

We investigate the range of inflationary universe models driven by scalar fields possessing a general interaction potential of the form V=V0 nexp(-m). Power-law, de Sitter, and intermediate inflationary universes emerge as special cases together with several new varieties of inflation. Analyzing the behavior of these models at the extrema of we derive sufficient constraints on the m-n parameter space such that inflation may occur as both an early- and late-time phenomenon. We also compute the scalar and tensor perturbations produced in the model and compare these results with recent observations. © 1995 The American Physical Society.