How to falsify scenarios with primordial fluctuations from inflation

Abstract

I argue that the proposition that primordial perturbations were produced by inflation is most definitely falsifyable. Far from ``predicting anything you want'', the Gaussianity and passivity of inflationary perturbations strongly constrain the possible outcomes. For example, the next generation of CMB satellites could easily prove that the perturbations do not have an inflationary origin.

13 pages including 4 figures. To be published in Critical Dialogues in Cosmology (proceedings of the Princeton 250th Anniversary conference, June 1996), ed. N. Turok (World Scientific). Changes: Macro fixed so name of author appears on preprint