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Register a new userScale-Invariant Quadratic Gravity and Inflation in the Palatini Formalism
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Added by
Alexandros Karam Dr.
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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In the framework of classical scale invariance, we consider quadratic gravity in the Palatini formalism and investigate the inflationary predictions of the theory. Our model corresponds to a two-field scalar-tensor theory, that involves the Higgs field and an extra scalar field stemming from a gauge $U(1)_X$ extension of the Standard Model, which contains an extra gauge boson and three right-handed neutrinos. Both scalar fields couple nonminimally to gravity and induce the Planck scale dynamically, once they develop vacuum expectation values. By means of the Gildener-Weinberg approach, we describe the inflationary dynamics in terms of a single scalar degree of freedom along the flat direction of the tree-level potential. The one-loop effective potential in the Einstein frame exhibits plateaus on both sides of the minimum and thus the model can accommodate both small and large field inflation. The inflationary predictions of the model are found to comply with the latest bounds set by the Planck collaboration for a wide range of parameters and the effect of the quadratic in curvature terms is to reduce the value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio.
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It has recently been suggested that the Standard Model Higgs boson could act as the inflaton while minimally coupled to gravity - given that the gravity sector is extended with an $alpha R^2$ term and the underlying theory of gravity is of Palatini, rather than metric, type. In this paper, we revisit the idea and correct some shortcomings in earlier studies. We find that in this setup the Higgs can indeed act as the inflaton and that the tree-level predictions of the model for the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio are $n_ssimeq 0.941$, $rsimeq 0.3/(1+10^{-8}alpha)$, respectively, for a typical number of e-folds, $N=50$, between horizon exit of the pivot scale $k=0.05, {rm Mpc}^{-1}$ and the end of inflation. Even though the tensor-to-scalar ratio is suppressed compared to the usual minimally coupled case and can be made compatible with data for large enough $alpha$, the result for $n_s$ is in severe tension with the Planck results. We briefly discuss extensions of the model.
We present an introduction to cosmic inflation in the context of Palatini gravity, which is an interesting alternative to the usual metric theory of gravity. In the latter case only the metric $g_{mu u}$ determines the geometry of space-time, whereas in the former case both the metric and the space-time connection $Gamma^lambda_{mu u}$ are a priori independent variables - a choice which can lead to a theory of gravity different from the metric one. In scenarios where the field(s) responsible for cosmic inflation are coupled non-minimally to gravity or the gravitational sector is otherwise extended, assumptions of the underlying gravitational degrees of freedom can have a big impact on the observational consequences of inflation. We demonstrate this explicitly by reviewing several interesting and well-motivated scenarios including Higgs inflation, $R^2$ inflation, and $xi$-attractor models. We also discuss some prospects for future research and argue why $r=10^{-3}$ is a particularly important goal for future missions that search for signatures of primordial gravitational waves.
We study preheating in the Palatini formalism with a quadratic inflaton potential and an added $alpha R^2$ term. In such models, the oscillating inflaton field repeatedly returns to the plateau of the Einstein frame potential, on which the tachyonic instability fragments the inflaton condensate within less than an e-fold. We find that tachyonic preheating takes place when $alpha gtrsim 10^{13}$ and that the energy density of the fragmented field grows with the rate $Gamma/H approx 0.011 times alpha^{0.31}$. The model extends the family of plateau models with similar preheating behaviour. Although it contains non-canonical quartic kinetic terms in the Einstein frame, we show that, in the first approximation, these can be neglected during both preheating and inflation.
We study quadratic gravity $R^2+R_{[mu u]}^2$ in the Palatini formalism where the connection and the metric are independent. This action has a {it gauged} scale symmetry (also known as Weyl gauge symmetry) of Weyl gauge field $v_mu= (tildeGamma_mu-Gamma_mu)/2$, with $tildeGamma_mu$ ($Gamma_mu$) the trace of the Palatini (Levi-Civita) connection, respectively. The underlying geometry is non-metric due to the $R_{[mu u]}^2$ term acting as a gauge kinetic term for $v_mu$. We show that this theory has an elegant spontaneous breaking of gauged scale symmetry and mass generation in the absence of matter, where the necessary scalar field ($phi$) is not added ad-hoc to this purpose but is extracted from the $R^2$ term. The gauge field becomes massive by absorbing the derivative term $partial_mulnphi$ of the Stueckelberg field (dilaton). In the broken phase one finds the Einstein-Proca action of $v_mu$ of mass proportional to the Planck scale $Msim langlephirangle$, and a positive cosmological constant. Below this scale $v_mu$ decouples, the connection becomes Levi-Civita and metricity and Einstein gravity are recovered. These results remain valid in the presence of non-minimally coupled scalar field (Higgs-like) with Palatini connection and the potential is computed. In this case the theory gives successful inflation and a specific prediction for the tensor-to-scalar ratio $0.007leq r leq 0.01$ for current spectral index $n_s$ (at $95%$CL) and N=60 efolds. This value of $r$ is mildly larger than in inflation in Weyl quadratic gravity of similar symmetry, due to different non-metricity. This establishes a connection between non-metricity and inflation predictions and enables us to test such theories by future CMB experiments.
We study tachyon inflation within the large-$N$ formalism, which takes a prescription for the small Hubble flow slow--roll parameter $epsilon_1$ as a function of the large number of $e$-folds $N$. This leads to a classification of models through their behaviour at large $N$. In addition to the perturbative $N$ class, we introduce the polynomial and exponential classes for the $epsilon_1$ parameter. With this formalism we reconstruct a large number of potentials used previously in the literature for Tachyon Inflation. We also obtain new families of potentials form the polynomial class. We characterize the realizations of Tachyon Inflation by computing the usual cosmological observables up to second order in the Hubble flow slow--roll parameters. This allows us to look at observable differences between tachyon and canonical single field inflation. The analysis of observables in light of the Planck 2015 data shows the viability of some of these models, mostly for certain realization of the polynomial and exponential classes.
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