Assisted inflation in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker and Bianchi spacetimes - art. no. 084029

We use exact general solutions for the spatially hat FRW and the anisotropi c Bianchi type I cosmologies to show that generically uncoupled scalar fiel ds cooperate to make inflation more probable, while the presence of several interacting fields hinders the occurrence of the phenomenon, in accordance with previous results based on particular power-law solutions. Similar con clusions are reached in the case of Bianchi type VIo spacetimes, for power- law solutions which are proved to be attractors.