Inflation, Cosmic Perturbations and Non-Gaussianities

Abstract

We review the theory of inflationary perturbations. Perturbations at both linear and nonlinear orders are reviewed. We also review a variety of inflation models, emphasizing their signatures on cosmic perturbations.

Comments: 84 pages, 36 figures. Based on lectures given at the 7th Asian Winter School on Strings, Particles and Cosmology. v2: observational aspects updated, references added, typos corrected. v3: references added, typos corrected, version to appear on Commun. Theor. Phys. Comments are welcome