At the end of inflation, a process known as reheating occurs. During reheating, the particles created during inflation are incinerated because of the radiation. The cosmic inflation process is believed to be the time leading up to the Big Bang process in which all of the matter and energy in the universe was created. Although the entire process of inflation is thought to have been short, it increased the size of the universe by approximately 10^20. Theories about the conclusion of inflation are designed to line up with the beginning of the Big Bang.
The idea of cosmological inflation solves questions like the horizon and flatness problem, but poses questions of how big the universe actually is. Another question that arises from the idea of inflation is, are there other universes out there? Cosmic inflation sits at the interface between the known and the unknown. Although these theories bring many questions, it has to be noted that observations are only in the beginning stages. And if it is in question, the observations are consistent with the theory that an early inflationary episode made the universe uniform and flat while planting the seeds of structure formation.
