Cosmological particle production: a review

This article will review quantum particle creation in expanding universes. The emphasis will be on the basic physical principles and on selected applications to cosmological models. The needed formalism of quantum field theory in curved spacetime will be summarized, and applied to the example of scalar particle creation in a spatially flat Universe. Estimates for the creation rate will be given and applied to inflationary cosmology models. Analog models which illustrate the same physical principles and may be experimentally realizable are also discussed.