On the inflationary flow equations

Abstract

I explore properties of the inflationary flow equations. I show that the flow equations do not correspond directly to inflationary dynamics. Nevertheless, they can be used as a rather complicated algorithm for generating inflationary models. I demonstrate that the flow equations can be solved analytically and give a closed form solution for the potentials to which flow equation solutions correspond. I end by considering some simpler algorithms for generating stochastic sets of slow-roll inflationary models for confrontation with observational data.