Originally proposed by Alan Guth, for 10 points, name this
 process of rapid exponential expansion in the early universe, immediately after the big bang.
The existence of an "Axis of Evil" in the CMB may indicate that this process occurred in a certain
 direction, though the occurrence of this process would imply that the universe is isotropic. The occurrence
 of this process implies that the gravitational collapse of quantum fluctuations lead to the formation of
 large-scale structures, and the gravitational radiation produced by this process is encoded in the B-modes of
 the CMB. The original formulation of this process had a metastable supercooled state terminated by a
 process of bubble nucleation via quantum tunneling, though that model suffered from the graceful exit
 problem. Linde proposed a slow-roll version of this process, and it was originally postulated to solve the
 flatness, horizon, and monopole problems. Originally proposed by Alan Guth, for 10 points, name this
 process of rapid exponential expansion in the early universe, immediately after the big bang.
The existence of an "Axis of Evil" in the CMB may indicate that this process occurred in a certain
 direction, though the occurrence of this process would imply that the universe is isotropic.
cosmic {inflation}