Note on Nariai and Tomita's and Starobinsky's cosmological solutions in   the R^2 modified gravity
  Cosmological solutions derived by Nariai and Tomita (1971) and by Starobinsky (1980) are compared, and it is shown that the former derived de Sitter expansion in the R^2 modified gravity (without cosmological constant) at the earliest stage, and nine years later the latter derived the well-known inflationary solution. Next the property of their simplified models is described using the method of conformal transformations, and how the inflation arises and the singularity is avoided is shown. Finally the initial and final states of the inflation are discussed. 
Kenji Tomita
gr-qc astro-ph.CO