Non-minimally Coupled Pseudoscalar Inflaton

TL;DR

This paper explores a pseudoscalar inflaton non-minimally coupled to gravity and gauge fields, showing that this setup can produce observable chiral gravitational waves while satisfying current cosmological constraints.

Contribution

It introduces a non-minimal gravitational coupling in pseudoscalar inflation with gauge fields, enhancing gravitational wave signals and potentially easing non-Gaussianity constraints.

Findings

Enhanced chiral gravitational wave spectrum due to non-minimal coupling.

Achieved slow-roll inflation with steep potentials via gauge particle production.

Compatible with observational bounds on spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio.

Abstract

We consider a scenario in which the inflaton $\phi$ is a pseudoscalar field non-minimally coupled to gravity through a term of the form ${\cal X} R \phi^2$. The pseudoscalar is also coupled to a $U(1)$ gauge field (or an ensemble of ${\cal N}$ gauge fields) through an axial coupling of the form $\phi F \tilde{F}$. After M. M. Anber and L. Sorbo, Phys. Rev. D 81, 043534 (2010), Ref. [1], it is well known that this axial coupling leads to a production of gauge particles which acts as a friction term in the dynamics of the inflaton, producing a slow-roll regime even in presence of a steep potential. A remarkable result in this scenario, is that the spectrum of the chiral gravitational waves sourced by the scalar-gauge field interplay can be enhanced due to the non-minimal coupling with gravity, leading to measurable signatures, while maintaining agreement with current observational constraints on $n_s$ and $r$. The inclusion of non-minimal coupling could be helpful to alleviate tensions with non-Gaussianity bounds in models including axial couplings.