Global dynamics of cosmological scalar fields -- Part I

We investigate the Liouvillian integrability of Hamiltonian systems describing a universe filled with a scalar field (possibly complex). The tool used is the differential Galois group approach, as introduced by Morales-Ruiz and Ramis. The main result is that the generic systems are non-integrable, although there still exist some values of parameters for which integrability remains undecided. We also draw a connection with chaos present in such cosmological models. The first part of the article deals with minimally coupled fields, and the second treats the conformal couping.