Inflation and Scale-invariant $R^2$-Gravity

TL;DR

This paper explores inflation within scale-invariant $R^2$ gravity, where scalar fields generate the Planck mass and influence cosmological constant dynamics, leading to potentially observable effects on spectral index running.

Contribution

It introduces a three-field inflationary model with a mechanism to cancel the cosmological constant, resulting in a testable two-field effective model with significant spectral index running.

Findings

The model predicts large running of the spectral index.

The effective inflationary dynamics reduce to a two-field system.

Potential for future cosmological experiments to test the model.

Abstract

In scale-invariant models of fundamental physics, mass scales are generated by spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this work, we study inflation in scale-invariant $R^2$ gravity, in which the Planck mass is generated by a scalar field, which is responsible for spontaneous breaking of scale--symmetry. If the self-interactions of the scalar field are non-zero, a cosmological constant is generated, which can be potentially quite large. To avoid fine-tuning at late times, we introduce another scalar field which drives the classical cosmological constant to zero during inflation. Working in the Einstein-frame, we find that due to a conserved Noether current the corresponding three-field inflationary model (consisting of the two scalar fields plus the scalaron) becomes effectively a two-field model. The prize to be paid for introducing the field which cancels the classical cosmological constant at the end of inflation is that the running of the spectral index and the running of the running can be quite large due to entropy perturbations during inflation, making the model testable with future cosmological experiments.