Cosmological inflation in supergravity

An exponential expansion of the universe, called inflation, is one of the important paradigms of the cosmological scenario and has been convinced by astronomical observations, e.g., of the cosmic microwave background radiation. On the other hand, supersymmetry is one of the most plausible extensions of the standard model, and the gravitational theory is naturally extended to supergravity. In this article, we will study the cosmological inflation within the framework of the supergravity. This study sheds light on the mysteries of the inflation and reheating eras as well as the mechanism of the supersymmetry breaking. (author)