COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND PROBES MODELS OF INFLATION

Inflation creates both scalar (density) and tensor (gravity wave) metric perturbations. We find that the tensor-mode contribution to the cosmic microwave background anisotropy on large-angular scales can only exceed that of the scalar mode in models where the spectrum of perturbations deviates significantly from scale invariance (e.g., extended and power-law inflation models and extreme versions of chaotic inflation). If the tensor mode dominates at large-angular scales, then the value of DELTAT/T predicted on 1-degrees is less than if the scalar mode dominates, and, for cold-dark-matter models, bias factors b > 1 can be made consistent with Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) DMR results.