INFLATIONARY COSMOLOGY FROM NONCOMMUTATIVE GEOMETRY

In the framework of the Connes-Lott model based on noncommutative geom etry, the basic features of a gauge theory in the presence of gravity are reviewed, in order to show the possible physical relevance of this scheme for inflationary cosmology. These models naturally contain at least two scalar fields, interacting with each other whenever more tha n one fermion generation is assumed. In this paper we propose to inves tigate the behavior of these two fields (one of which represents the d istance between the copies of a two-sheeted space-time) in the early s tages of the universe evolution. In particular the simplest Abelian mo del, which preserves the main characteristics of more complicate gauge theories, is considered and the corresponding inflationary dynamics i s studied. We find that a chaotic inflation is naturally favored, lead ing to a field configuration in which no symmetry breaking occurs and the final distance between tile two sheets of space-time is smaller th e greater the number of e fold in each sheet.