Chaotic Inflation RIDES Again

TL;DR

This paper revisits chaotic inflation models incorporating radiative corrections and non-minimal gravity coupling, proposing a unified framework (RIDE) that fits recent Planck and ACT data by adjusting key parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a radiative inflation and dark energy (RIDE) model with a complex scalar field, incorporating quantum corrections and gravity coupling to better match observational data.

Findings

Radiative corrections induce spontaneous symmetry breaking near scale Λ.

Non-minimal coupling reduces tensor-to-scalar ratio r.

Model fits Planck and ACT data with specific parameter choices.

Abstract

Following the recent Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) results, we revisit chaotic inflation based on a single complex scalar field with mass term $M^2 |\Phi|^2$, which usually predicts a spectra index $n_s\approx 0.96$ but a too-large tensor to scalar ratio $r\approx 0.16$. With radiative corrections, the potential $M^2 |\Phi|^2 \ln \left( |\Phi|^2/\Lambda^2 \right)$ induces spontaneous symmetry breaking near the scale $\Lambda$, yielding a Pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson which can play the role of a quintessence field, hence radiative inflation and dark energy (RIDE). Including a non-minimal coupling to gravity $\xi |\Phi|^2 R^2$ reduces $r$, allowing a good fit of the RIDE model to Planck data. Allowing a small additional quartic coupling correction $\lambda |\Phi|^4$ increases both $n_s$ and $r$, with a good fit to ACT data sets achieved for $\xi \approx 1$.