Supersymmetric Inflation and Large - scale Structure ∗

In effective supergravity theories following from the superstring, a modulus field can quite naturally set the neccessary initial conditions for successful cosmological inflation to be driven by a hidden sector scalar field. The leading term in the scalar potential is cubic hence the spectrum of scalar density perturbations neccessarily deviates from scale-invariance, while the generation of gravitational waves is negligible. The growth of large-scale structure is then consistent with observational data assuming a critical density cold dark matter universe, with no need for a component of hot dark matter. The model can be tested thorough measurements of cosmic microwave background anisotropy on small angular scales. Invited talk at the Inauguration Conference of the Asia-Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics, Seoul (June 4-10, 1996) Typeset using REVTEX Work done in collaboration with J.A. Adams & G.G. Ross [1]