Cosmic inflation is a theoretical model proposing a period of extremely rapid, exponential expansion that occurred in the very early universe, immediately following the initial inflationary epoch. This dramatic acceleration is hypothesized to have stretched the initial volume of the universe by a factor of $10^{26}$ or more, smoothing out spatial irregularities and establishing the necessary conditions for the later formation of large-scale structures. The process is generally modeled as being driven by a potential energy density stored in a scalar field, causing the metric of space to expand rapidly before the energy density decayed and transitioned into the hot, dense plasma characteristic of the standard Big Bang model.