Quasi-pole quintessential inflation in metric-affine gravity

TL;DR

This paper explores a model of quintessential inflation within metric-affine gravity, utilizing non-minimal couplings to produce inflationary behavior similar to Starobinsky's model and explaining dark energy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach combining quasi-pole inflation with metric-affine gravity to unify early and late universe acceleration.

Findings

Predicted scalar spectral index between 0.966 and 0.967

Model aligns with observational constraints

Highly testable and falsifiable predictions

Abstract

We study quintessential inflation in the framework of metric-affine gravity. It is well known that non-minimal couplings with the Holst invariant can generate a quasi-pole inflationary behaviour resulting in a Starobinsky-like phenomenology. The same quasi-pole behaviour can also be used in order to "flatten" the scalar potential in the Dark Energy era providing a successful framework for quintessential inflation. Agreement with all the observational constraints, reduces the predicted scalar spectral index to a narrow window: $0.966 \lesssim n_s \lesssim 0.967$, making the model highly testable and falsifiable.