General Aspects of the de Sitter phase
  We present a detailed discussion of the inflationary scenario in the context of inhomogeneous cosmologies. After a review of the fundamental features characterizing the inflationary model, as referred to a homogeneous and isotropic Universe, we develop a generalization in view of including small inhomogeneous corrections in the theory. A second step in our discussion is devoted to show that the inflationary scenario provides a valuable dynamical ``bridge'' between a generic Kasner-like regime and a homogeneous and isotropic Universe in the horizon scale. This result is achieved by solving the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for a Bianchi IX model in the presence of a cosmological space-dependent term. In this respect, we construct a quasi-isotropic inflationary solution based on the expansion of the Einstein equations up to first-two orders of approximation, in which the isotropy of the Universe is due to the dominance of the scalar field kinetic term; the first order of approximation corresponds to the inhomogeneous corrections and is driven by the matter evolution. We show how such a quasi-isotropic solution contains a certain freedom in fixing the space functions involved in the problem. The main physical issue of this analysis corresponds to outline the impossibility for the classical origin of density perturbations, due to the exponential decay of the matter term during the de Sitter phase. 
Giovanni Imponente and Giovanni Montani