Is There a Field That Causes Inflation?

A quantum field is the only thing we know how to put into the universe. It can contain energy, and it can have particles in it. And so people think maybe the inflaton field was some field that started out with a lot of potential energy,. No matter at all, no particles, just a lot of possible energy. The interesting thing about a quantum field that has just potential energy is that it causes rapid expansion of space time.