Generalised Scalar Field Potentials and In ationPaul

We investigate the range of innationary universe models driven by scalar elds possessing a general interaction potential of the form V () = V 0 n exp(? m). Power-law, de Sitter and intermediate innationary universes emerge as special cases together with several new varieties of innation. Analysing the behaviour of these models at the extrema of we derive suucient constraints on the m-n parameter space such that innation 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.