Characterizing inflationary perturbations:: The uniform approximation -: art. no. 083507

The spectrum of primordial fluctuations from inflation can be obtained using a mathematically controlled, and systematically extendable, uniform approximation. Closed-form expressions for power spectra and spectral indices may be found without making explicit slow-roll assumptions. Here we provide details of our previous calculations, extend the results beyond leading-order in the approximation, and derive general error bounds for power spectra and spectral indices. Already at next-to-leading-order, the errors in calculating the power spectrum are less than a percent. This meets the accuracy requirement for interpreting next-generation cosmic microwave background observations.