Homogeneous Cosmological Models and New Inflation

Abstract
The promise of the inflationary-Universe scenario is to free the present state of the Universe from extreme dependence upon initial data. Paradoxically, inflation is usually analyzed in the context of the homogeneous and isotropic Robertson-Walker cosmological models. We show that all but a small subset of the homogeneous models undergo inflation. Any initial anisotropy is so strongly damped that if sufficient inflation occurs to solve the flatness and horizon problems the Universe today would still be very isotropic.