Inflation and reheating in theories with spontaneous scale invariance symmetry breaking

Abstract

We study a scale-invariant model of quadratic gravity with a non-minimally coupled scalar field. We focus on cosmological solutions and find that scale invariance is spontaneously broken and a mass scale naturally emerges. Before the symmetry breaking, the Universe undergoes an inflationary expansion with nearly the same observational predictions of Starobinsky's model. At the end of inflation, the Hubble parameter and the scalar field converge to a stable fixed point through damped oscillations and the usual Einstein-Hilbert action is recovered. The oscillations around the fixed point can reheat the Universe in various ways and we study in detail some of these possibilities.

One appendix added, issues related to scale invariance in the two frames clarified. References added/updated. Version accepted by PRD

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