Click here to flash read.
arXiv:2403.18004v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: We consider here natural inflation in the low energy (two-derivative) metric-affine theory containing only the minimal degrees of freedom in the inflationary sector, i.e. the massless graviton and the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (PNGB). This theory contains the Ricci-like and parity-odd Holst invariants together with non-minimal couplings between the PNGB and the above-mentioned invariants. The Palatini and Einstein-Cartan realizations of natural inflation are particular cases of our construction. Explicit models of this type are shown to admit an explicit UV completion in a QCD-like theory with a Planckian confining scale. Moreover, for these models, we find regions of the parameter space where the inflationary predictions agree with the most recent observations at the $2\sigma$ level. We find that in order to enter the $1\sigma$ region it is necessary (and sufficient) to have a finite value of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter and a sizable non-minimal coupling between the inflaton and the Holst invariant (with sign opposite to the Barbero-Immirzi parameter). Indeed, in this case the potential of the canonically normalized inflaton develops a plateau as shown analytically.
No creative common's license