The very basics of cosmological inflation are discussed. We derive the equations of motion for the inflaton field, introduce the slow-roll parameters, and present the computation of the inflationary perturbations and their connection to the temperatu
re fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background.
We discuss the infrared divergences that appear to plague cosmological perturbation theory. We show that within the stochastic framework they are regulated by eternal inflation so that the theory predicts finite fluctuations. Using the $Delta N$ form
alism to one loop, we demonstrate that the infrared modes can be absorbed into additive constants and the coefficients of the diagrammatic expansion for the connected parts of two and three-point functions of the curvature perturbation. As a result, the use of any infrared cutoff below the scale of eternal inflation is permitted, provided that the background fields are appropriately redefined. The natural choice for the infrared cutoff would of course be the present horizon; other choices manifest themselves in the running of the correlators. We also demonstrate that it is possible to define observables that are renormalization group invariant. As an example, we derive a non-perturbative, infrared finite and renormalization point independent relation between the two-point correlators of the curvature perturbation for the case of the free single field.
We model the essential features of eternal inflation on the landscape of a dense discretuum of vacua by the potential $V(phi)=V_{0}+delta V(phi)$, where $|delta V(phi)|ll V_{0}$ is random. We find that the diffusion of the distribution function $rho(
phi,t)$ of the inflaton expectation value in different Hubble patches may be suppressed due to the effect analogous to the Anderson localization in disordered quantum systems. At $t to infty$ only the localized part of the distribution function $rho (phi, t)$ survives which leads to dynamical selection principle on the landscape. The probability to measure any but a small value of the cosmological constant in a given Hubble patch on the landscape is exponentially suppressed at $tto infty$.
