INFLATION IN OPEN FLRW UNIVERSES

Inflation has become a successful paradigm of the evolution of the ear ly history of the universe. One of the main predictions from this mode l is that the cosmological density parameter OMEGA should be very clos e to unity at the present epoch. This has led to a firm belief in the existence of dark matter as the major component of the density of the universe. However, recent observations indicate that OMEGA0 may in fac t not be unity. Also, recent investigations by Ellis and others have i ndicated that inflation need not necessarily lead to OMEGA = 1. We inv estigate this claim further by making use of a pre-inflationary coasti ng phase.