Higgs inflation in Einstein-Cartan gravity

Abstract

We study inflation driven by the Higgs field in the Einstein-Cartan formulation of gravity. In this theory, the presence of the Holst and Nieh-Yan terms with the Higgs field non-minimally coupled to them leads to three additional coupling constants. For a broad range of parameters, we find that inflation is both possible and consistent with observations. In most cases, the spectral index is given by $n_s=1-2/N_{\star }$ (with $N_{\star }$ the number of e-foldings) whereas the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ can vary between about $10^{-10}$ and $1$. Thus, there are scenarios of Higgs inflation in the Einstein-Cartan framework for which the detection of gravitational waves from inflation is possible in the near future. In certain limits, the known models of Higgs inflation in the metric and Palatini formulations of gravity are reproduced. Finally, we discuss the robustness of inflationary dynamics against quantum corrections due to the scalar and fermion fields.

26 pages, 8 figures, 1 appendix; v2: updated figures and references, added short comparison with arXiv:2007.12595, minor corrections to formulas in sections 6.2 and 6.3, other small improvements; matches published version (including erratum)

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Cited by in corpus (33)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Palatini-Higgs inflation with non-minimal derivative coupling
• Scale-Invariant Quadratic Gravity and Inflation in the Palatini Formalism
• Coupling Metric-Affine Gravity to a Higgs-Like Scalar Field
• Palatini $R^2$ Quintessential Inflation
• Tachyonic Preheating in Palatini $R^2$ Inflation
• Higgs-Modular Inflation
• Einstein-Cartan Portal to Dark Matter
• Matter matters in Einstein-Cartan gravity
• Einstein-Cartan gravity, matter, and scale-invariant generalization
• Independent connection in ACTion during inflation
• Tree-level unitarity in Higgs inflation in the metric and the Palatini formulation
• Scale and Weyl Invariance in Einstein-Cartan Gravity
• Field redefinitions, perturbative unitarity and Higgs inflation
• Coupling Metric-Affine Gravity to the Standard Model and Dark Matter Fermions
• Electroweak vacuum decay in metric-affine gravity
• Cosmological Perturbation Theory in Metric-Affine Gravity
• Inflation in Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity
• Extended interactions in the Palatini-$R^2$ inflation
• Einstein-Proca theory from the Einstein-Cartan formulation
• Massless Preheating and Electroweak Vacuum Metastability
• Effect of Torsion on Neutron Star Structure in Einstein-Cartan Gravity
• Global Portraits of Nonminimal Inflation: Metric and Palatini
• Cartan $F(R)$ Gravity and Equivalent Scalar-Tensor Theory
• Isocurvature modes and non-Gaussianity in affine inflation
• Friedmann cosmology with hyperfluids
• Barbero-Immirzi Value from Experiment
• Evolution of the early universe in Einstein-Cartan theory
• Toward a gravitational network: Bridging metric-affine gravity and no-scale supergravity
• Dynamically induced spin-2 mass in a Weyl-invariant framework
• Twisting inflation to sub-Planckian axion decay constants
• Reheating in geometric Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity
• Minimalistic musings about the Standard Model