Nathalie Deruelle, Misao Sasaki, Yuuiti Sendouda, Ahmed Youssef
In order to assess the role of ghosts in cosmology, we study the evolution of linear cosmological perturbations during inflation when a Weyl term is added to the action. Our main result is that vector perturbations can no longer be ignored and that scalar modes diverge in the newtonian gauge but remain bounded in the comoving slicing.
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Ghost inflation predicts almost scale-invariant primordial cosmological perturbations with relatively large non-Gaussianity. The bispectrum is known to have a large contribution at the wavenumbers forming an equilateral triangle and the corresponding nonlinear parameter $f_{NL}^{equil}$ is typically of order $O(10^2)$. In this paper we calculate trispectrum from ghost inflation and show that the corresponding nonlinear parameter $τ_{NL}$ is typically of order $O(10^4)$. We investigate the shape dependence of the trispectrum and see that it has some features different from DBI inflation. Theref…
We consider a generic model of quadratic gravity coupled to a single scalar and investigate the effects of gravitational degrees of freedom on inflationary parameters. We find that quantum corrections arising from the massive spin-2 ghost generate significant contributions to the effective inflationary potential and allow for a realization of the spontaneous breakdown of global scale invariance without the need for additional scalar fields. We compute inflationary parameters, compare the resulting predictions to well-known inflationary models, and find that they fit well within the Planck and …
We show that the ghost degrees of freedom of Einstein gravity with a Weyl term can be eliminated by a simple mechanism that invokes local Lorentz symmetry breaking. We demonstrate how the mechanism works in a cosmological setting. The presence of the Weyl term forces a redefinition of the quantum vacuum state of the tensor perturbations. As a consequence the amplitude of their spectrum blows up when the Lorentz-violating scale becomes comparable to the Hubble radius. Such a behaviour is in sharp contrast to what happens in standard Weyl gravity where the gravitational ghosts smoothly damp out …
In the setup of ghost condensation model the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics can be respected under a radiatively stable assumption that couplings between the field responsible for ghost condensate and matter fields such as those in the Standard Model are suppressed by the Planck scale. Since not only black holes but also cosmology are expected to play important roles towards our better understanding of gravity, we consider a cosmological setup to test the theory of ghost condensation. In particular we shall show that the de Sitter entropy bound proposed by Arkani-Hamed, et…
Scalar-Induced Gravitational Waves from Ghost Inflation and Parity Violation
本文在幽灵暴涨理论中计算标量诱导引力波能量密度，纳入功率谱与四点函数贡献及宇称破坏算符，发现宇称奇信号虽小但非简并，可作为探测幽灵暴涨和宇称破坏物理的探针。
We present a setup that provides a partial UV-completion of the ghost inflation model up to a scale which can be almost as high as the Planck mass. This is achieved by coupling the inflaton to the Lorentz-violating sector described by the Einstein-aether theory or its khronometric version. Compared to previous works on ghost inflation our setup allows to go beyond the study of small perturbations and include the background dynamics in a unified framework. In the specific regime when the expansion of the Universe is dominated by the kinetic energy of the inflaton we find that the model predicts…
Higgs inflation in Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity
本文研究Weyl不变爱因斯坦-嘉当引力与标准模型耦合下的暴胀动力学，通过将引力起源的类轴子粒子视为近似无质量，证明希格斯场可以驱动暴胀。
Exhaustive ghost solutions to Einstein-Weyl equations for two dimensional spacetimes are obtained, where the ghost neutrinos propagate in the background spacetime, but do not influence the background spacetime due to the vanishing stress-energy-momentum tensor for the ghost neutrinos. Especially, those non-trivial ghost solutions provide a counterexample to the traditional claim that the Einstein-Hilbert action has no meaningful two dimensional analogue.
We propose a new scenario for early cosmology, where an inflationary de Sitter phase is obtained with a ghost condensate. The transition to radiation dominance is triggered by the ghost itself, without any slow-roll potential. Density perturbations are generated by fluctuations around the ghost condensate and can be reliably computed in the effective field theory. The fluctuations are scale invariant as a consequence of the de Sitter symmetries, however, the size of the perturbations are parametrically different from conventional slow-roll inflation, and the inflation happens at far lower ener…
Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity with a heavy ALP: Higgs Inflation and $α$-attractors
本文研究Weyl不变Einstein-Cartan引力与标准模型非最小耦合的暴胀动力学，在引力起源的ALP为重粒子的条件下，证明可实现由Higgs场驱动的暴胀。
We study the creation and evolution of cosmological perturbations in renormalizable quadratic gravity with a Weyl term. We adopt a prescription that implies the stability of the vacuum at the price of introducing a massive spin-two ghost state, leading to the loss of unitarity. The theory may still be predictive regardless the interpretation of non-unitary processes provided that their rate is negligible compared to the Universe expansion rate. This implies that the ghost is effectively stable. In such a setup, there are two scalar degrees of freedom excited during inflation. The first one is …
We study inflation in Weyl gravity. The original Weyl quadratic gravity, based on Weyl conformal geometry, is a theory invariant under Weyl symmetry of (gauged) local scale transformations. In this theory Planck scale ($M$) emerges as the scale where this symmetry is broken spontaneously by a geometric Stueckelberg mechanism, to Einstein-Proca action for the Weyl "photon" (of mass near $M$). With this action as a "low energy" broken phase of Weyl gravity, century-old criticisms of the latter (due to non-metricity) are avoided. In this context, inflation with field values above $M$ is natural, …
Geometrical origin of inflation in Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity
本文证明了二次Weyl不变Einstein-Cartan引力中内建的标量自由度能驱动暴胀，且预测与观测高度吻合，揭示了暴胀的几何起源。
Conformal scaling invariance should play an important role for understanding the origin and evolution of universe. During inflation period, it appears to be an approximate symmetry, but how it is broken remains uncertain. The appealing $α$-attractor inflation implements the spontaneous breaking of conformal symmetry and a mysterious SO(1,1) global symmetry. To better understand the SO(1,1) symmetry, here we present a systematic treatment of the inflation models with local conformal symmetry in a more general formalism. We find SO(2) is the other possible symmetry in the presence of Weyl gauge …
Based on entropy considerations and the arrow of time Penrose argued that the universe must have started in a special initial singularity with vanishing Weyl curvature. This is often interpreted to be at odds with inflation. Here we argue just the opposite, that Penrose's persuasions are in fact consistent with inflation. Using the example of power law inflation, we show that inflation begins with a past null singularity, where Weyl tensor vanishes when the metric is initially exactly conformally flat. This initial state precisely obeys Penrose's conditions. The initial null singularity breaks…
Inflation in the early universe can generate the nearly conformal invariant fluctuation that leads to the structures we observe at the present. The simple viable Starobinsky $R^2$ inflation has an approximate global scale symmetry. We study the conformal symmetric Weyl $\hat{R}^2$ and general $F(\hat{R})$ theories and demonstrate their equivalence to Einstein gravity coupled with a scalar and a Weyl gauge field. The scalar field in Weyl $\hat{R}^2$ gravity can be responsible for inflation with Starobinsky model as the attractor, potentially distinguishable from the latter by future experiments…
Motivated by the Weyl scaling gauge symmetry, we present a theoretical framework to explain cosmic inflation and dark matter simultaneously. This symmetry has been resurrected in recent attempts to formulate the gauge theory of gravity. We show the inspired inflation model is well consistent with current observations and will be probed further by future experiments. Furthermore, we clarify and prove the stability of Weyl gauge boson in the general theory with multiple scalars. We show the massive Weyl gauge boson can be a dark matter candidate and give the correct relic abundance.
Models of inflation with antisymmetric tensor studied in the past are plagued with ghost instability even in an unperturbed FRW background. We show that it is possible to avoid ghosts in an unperturbed FRW background by considering the most general kinetic term for antisymmetric tensor field. The kinetic part acquires a new gauge symmetry violating term whose effect on perturbed modes is to prevent the appearance of nondynamical modes, and thus avoid ghosts. For completeness, we perform a check for gradient instability and derive the conditions for perturbations to be free of gradient instabil…
We investigate the particle content of parity-preserving Weyl gauge theories of gravity (WGT$^+$) about a Minkowski background. Within a subset of the full theory, we use a systematic method previously presented in [arXiv:1812.02675] to determine 862 critical cases for which the parameter values in the action lead to additional gauge invariances. We find that 168 of these cases are free of ghosts and tachyons, provided the parameters satisfy certain conditions that we also determine. We further identify 40 of these cases that are also power-counting renormalizable and determine the correspondi…
We present a comparative study of inflation in two theories of quadratic gravity with {\it gauged} scale symmetry: 1) the original Weyl quadratic gravity and 2) the theory defined by a similar action but in the Palatini approach obtained by replacing the Weyl connection by its Palatini counterpart. These theories have different vectorial non-metricity induced by the gauge field ($w_μ$) of this symmetry. Both theories have a novel spontaneous breaking of gauged scale symmetry, in the absence of matter, where the necessary scalar field is not added ad-hoc to this purpose but is of geometric orig…
Higher-curvature gravity in Weyl geometry: No-ghost and no-tachyon conditions
该研究在Weyl几何中构造了标量曲率任意函数的引力理论，证明其无鬼无快子条件等价于补偿标量动力学系数为正，并指出含常数、线性和二次项时必有有质量矢量和标量曲率子。
Inflation in Weyl-invariant Einstein-Cartan gravity
本文研究 Weyl 不变二次 Einstein-Cartan 引力与标量场及 Holst 赝标量耦合系统的暴胀，发现其表现为小场值下的有效单场暴胀，且预言与观测相符。
Could new physics break the mirror symmetry of the Universe? Utilizing recent measurements of the parity-odd four-point correlation function of BOSS galaxies, we probe the physics of inflation by placing constraints on the amplitude of a number of parity-violating models. Within canonical models of (single-field, slow-roll) inflation, no parity-asymmetry can occur; however, it has recently been shown that breaking of the standard assumptions can lead to parity violation within the Effective Field Theory of Inflation (EFTI). In particular, we consider the Ghost Condensate and Cosmological Colli…
Scalar fields, $ϕ_i$ can be coupled non-minimally to curvature and satisfy the general criteria: (i) the theory has no mass input parameters, including the Planck mass; (ii) the $ϕ_i$ have arbitrary values and gradients, but undergo a general expansion and relaxation to constant values that satisfy a nontrivial constraint, $K(ϕ_i) =$ constant; (iii) this constraint breaks scale symmetry spontaneously, and the Planck mass is dynamically generated; (iv) there can be adequate inflation associated with slow roll in a scale invariant potential subject to the constraint; (v) the final vacuum can hav…
Starobinsky inflation with a quadratic Weyl tensor
研究含二次Weyl张量的Starobinsky暴胀的线性稳定性，发现标量 sector 存在经典指数增长不稳定性，使背景不可行，矢量和张量 sector 分别有对应鬼模但无经典不稳定性。
Quantization of Weyl invariant unimodular gravity with antisymmetric ghost fields
本文用含反对称鬼场的 BRST 方法量子化兼具横向微分同胚与 Weyl 对称性的幺模引力，避免 Lagrange 乘子，并导出 Newton 定律和 Slavnov-Taylor 方程。
Dark matter and inflation are two key elements to understand the origin of cosmic structures in modern cosmology, and yet their exact physical models remain largely uncertain. The Weyl scaling invariant theory of gravity may provide a feasible scheme to solve these two puzzles jointly, which contains a massive gauge boson playing the role of dark matter candidate, and allows the quadratic scalar curvature term, namely $R^2$, to realize a viable inflationary mechanism in agreement with current observations. We ponder on the production of dark matters in the Weyl $R^2$ model, including the contr…
Spacetime with general linear vector distortion is introduced. Thus, the torsion and the nonmetricity of the affine connection are assumed to be proportional to a vector field (and not its derivatives). The resulting two-parameter family of non-Riemannian geometries generalises the conformal Weyl geometry and some other interesting special cases. Taking into account the leading order quadratic curvature correction to the Einstein-Hilbert action results uniquely in the one-parameter extension of the Starobinsky inflation known as the alpha-attractor. The most general quadratic curvature action …
Gravitational Waves from Preheating in Inflation with Weyl Symmetry
该研究针对具有Weyl对称性的暴胀模型，通过线性解析与非线性格点模拟发现预热阶段会产生频段约$10^8$~$10^9$Hz的显著随机引力波，为暴胀动力学提供了新的高频探测途径。
In this work we shall study ghost-free non-local $F(R)$ gravity models. Firstly we shall demonstrate how the ghost degrees of freedom may occur in the non-local $F(R)$ gravity models, and accordingly we shall modify appropriately the gravitational action of non-local $F(R)$ gravity models in order to eliminate the ghosts. Also we shall investigate how the (anti-)de Sitter and the Minkowski spacetime cosmological solutions may arise in the theory, and we investigate when these solutions are stable. Moreover, we shall examine the inflationary phenomenology of the Jordan frame ghost-free non-loca…
Gravity can be embedded into a renormalizable theory by means of adding quadratic in curvature terms. However, this at first leads to the presence of the Weyl ghost. It is possible to get rid of this ghost if the locality assumption is weakened and the propagator of the graviton is represented by an entire function of the d'Alembertian operator without new poles and zeros. Models of this type admit a cosmological solution describing the $R^2$, or Starobinsky, inflation. We study graviton production after inflation in this model and show that it is negligible despite the presence of the higher …
Warm inflation in a Universe with a Weylian boundary
本研究将Weyl型几何边界引入Einstein-Hilbert作用量，推导含Weyl向量的广义Friedmann方程，构建三类暖暴胀模型，数值模拟证实边界效应在早期宇宙辐射产生及暴胀阶段转变中起重要作用。
Recently, there has been an interest in inflation and modified gravity with a Weyl term added to the general-relativistic action (N. Derulle, M. Sasaki, Y. Sendouda and A. Youssef, JCAP, 3, 040 (2011)). In this paper we study empirical constraint on this modified gravity from solar-system experiments/observations. We first derive linearized equation of motion in the weak field limit and solve it for isolated system in the slow motion limit. We then use it to derive the light propagation equations, and obtain the relativistic Shapiro time delay and the light deflection in one-body central probl…
Inflation from a Weyl-flat null origin
该研究展示了一个Weyl平坦的null原点在膨胀中无需与现有观测矛盾。通过单场规范膨胀，背景在N趋于无穷时ε(N)趋近于(0,1)区间，继承相同的Weyl平坦null过去边界，并在场空间中重建指数尾部。研究了最小变形，保持渐近几何，产生平滑退出，并产生现实的有限N现象学。
We discuss the local (gauged) Weyl symmetry and its spontaneous breaking and apply it to model building beyond the Standard Model (SM) and inflation. In models with non-minimal couplings of the scalar fields to the Ricci scalar, that are conformal invariant, the spontaneous generation by a scalar field(s) vev of a positive Newton constant demands a negative kinetic term for the scalar field, or vice-versa. This is naturally avoided in models with additional Weyl gauge symmetry. The Weyl gauge field $ω_μ$ couples to the scalar sector but not to the fermionic sector of a SM-like Lagrangian. The …
We derive the predictions of quantum gravity with fakeons on the amplitudes and spectral indices of the scalar and tensor fluctuations in inflationary cosmology. The action is $R+R^{2}$ plus the Weyl-squared term. The ghost is eliminated by turning it into a fakeon, that is to say a purely virtual particle. We work to the next-to-leading order of the expansion around the de Sitter background. The consistency of the approach puts a lower bound ($ m_{χ}>m_{ϕ}/4$) on the mass $m_{χ}$ of the fakeon with respect to the mass $m_{ϕ}$ of the inflaton. The tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ is predicted within…
Warm inflation in Weyl geometric gravity
本文研究了Weyl几何引力理论中的暖膨胀场景，探讨了通过在最简单的规范不变引力作用量中加入物质而构建的作用量，并分析了该理论在宇宙早期演化的 cosmological implications，包括辐射、inflaton场和Weyl向量共存的情况，提出了线性耗散系数模型与四次方势的结合，并通过数值计算开发了一个从膨胀时期自然过渡到辐射主导时期的暖膨胀模型。
The nature of the scalar field responsible for the cosmological inflation, the \qo{inflaton}, is found to be rooted in the most fundamental concept of the Weyl's differential geometry: the parallel displacement of vectors in curved space-time. The Euler-Lagrange theory based on a scalar-tensor Weyl-Dirac Lagrangian leads straightforwardly to the Einstein equation admitting as a source the characteristic energy-momentum tensor of the inflaton field. Within the dynamics of the inflation, e.g. in the slow roll transition from a \qo{false} toward a \qo{true vacuum}, the inflaton's geometry implies…
We study inflationary solution in an extension of mimetic gravity with the higher derivative interactions coupled to gravity. Because of the higher derivative interactions, the setup is free from the ghost and gradient instabilities while it hosts a number of novel properties. The dispersion relation of scalar perturbations develops quartic momentum correction similar to the setup of ghost inflation. Furthermore, the tilt of tensor perturbations can take either signs with a modified consistency relation between the tilt and the amplitude of tensor perturbations. Despite the presence of higher …
We investigate cosmological inflationary scenarios from a gravitoelectromagnetic theory. Our work is formulated in the light of a recently introduced geometrical Weyl-Invariant scalar-tensor theory of gravity, where the nature of both the electromagnetic potential and the inflaton field is attributed to the space-time geometry. We obtain a Harrison-Zeldovich power spectrum for quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. In our model the electromagnetic fields have also a nearly scale invariant power spectrum for a power-law inflation. We found that the the seed magnetic fields have a nearly sc…
Inflation in Weyl Scaling Invariant Gravity with $R^3$ Extensions
本文提出 Weyl 标度不变 $R^2+R^3$ 引力暴胀模型，通过解析与数值分析揭示两类可行暴胀模式及宽范围张量-标量比，可供未来 CMB 与原初引力波实验检验。
We study the inflationary perturbations in general (classically) scale-invariant theories. Such scenario is motivated by the hierarchy problem and provides natural inflationary potentials and dark matter candidates. We analyse in detail all sectors (the scalar, vector and tensor perturbations) giving general formulae for the potentially observable power spectra, as well as for the curvature spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$. We show that the conserved Hamiltonian for all perturbations does not feature negative energies even in the presence of the Weyl-squared term if the …
Pole inflation from extended metric-affine gravity
本研究在扩展度规仿射F(R)引力框架下，利用非正则动能项的极点结构实现暴胀，分类模型并放宽无鬼条件，显著扩大可行模型集合，重现吸引子预测。
In this paper we investigate the perturbation theory of the asymptotically safe inflation and we find that all modes of gravitational waves perturbation become ghosts in order to achieve a large enough number of e-folds. Formally we can calculate the power spectrum of gravitational waves perturbation, but we find that it is negative. It indicates that there is serious trouble with the asymptotically safe inflation.
In this paper we study a novel realization of inflation, based on Weyl invariant gravity with torsion. We show that requiring the classical action for the scalar field to be Weyl invariant introduces a dilaton which induces a non trivial modification of the field space geometry of the scalar sector, which allows for inflationary phase that begins at the conformal point of the inflaton $ψ$, i.e. $\langleψ\rangle=0$. Since the model is Weyl invariant, the inflaton condensation models a process of spontaneous Weyl symmetry breaking. For a wide range of parameters the spectral observables of the m…
We prove that the anisotropic inflationary background of the Ackerman-Carroll-Wise model, characterized by a fixed-norm vector field, is unstable. We found the instability by explicitly solving the linearized equations for the most general set of perturbations around this background, and by noticing that the solutions diverge close to horizon crossing. This happens because one perturbation becomes a ghost at that moment. A simplified computation, with only the perturbations of the vector field included, shows the same instability, clarifying the origin of the problem. We then discuss several o…
We investigate gauge invariant scalar fluctuations of the metric during inflation in a non-perturbative formalism in the framework of a recently introduced scalar-tensor theory of gravity formulated on a Weyl-Integrable geometry. We found that the Weyl scalar field can play the role of the inflaton field in this theory. As an application we study the case of a power law inflation. In this case the quasi-scale invariance of the spectrum for scalar fluctuations of the metric is achieved for determined values of the $ω$ parameter of the scalar-tensor theory. In our formalism the physical inflaton…
We study a nonsingular bounce inflation model, which can drive the early universe from a contracting phase, bounce into an ordinary inflationary phase, followed by the reheating process. Besides the bounce that avoided the Big-Bang singularity which appears in the standard cosmological scenario, we make use of the Horndesky theory and design the kinetic and potential forms of the lagrangian, so that neither of the two big problems in bouncing cosmology, namely the ghost and the anisotropy problems, will appear. The cosmological perturbations can be generated either in the contracting phase or …
We investigate a locally scale-invariant (that is, Weyl-invariant) theory which describes the coupling of gravity and the standard model from the viewpont of the Higgs mechanism and inflation. It is shown that this theory exhibits a peculiar feature of a coupling between the gauge field and the inflaton in a large field limit whereas it nicely describes the standard model coupled to general relativity in a small field limit. Moreover, we discuss a possibility that this Weyl invariant theory could explain the recent BICEP2 measurement by deforming the potential term in an appropriate way, and f…
The $R+R^2$, shortly named "$R^2$" ("Starobinsky") inflationary model, represents a fully consistent example of a one-parameter inflationary scenario. This model has a "graceful exit" from inflation and provides a mechanism for subsequent creation and final thermalization of the standard matter. Moreover, it produces a very good fit of the observed spectrum of primordial perturbations. In the present paper we show explicitly that the $R^2$ inflationary spacetime is an exact solution of a range of weakly non-local (quasi-polynomial) gravitational theories, which provide an ultraviolet completio…
In the spirit of Galileon inflation and by considering some sorts of non-canonical kinetic terms in the action, we realize a stage of super-inflation leading to a blue-tilted tensor perturbation. We show also that addition of Galileon-like term to the action leads to avoidance of ghost instabilities in this setup.
Recently the vector inflation has been proposed as the alternative to inflationary models based on scalar bosons and quintessence scalar fields. In the vector inflationary model, the vector field non-minimally couples to gravity. We should, however, inquire if there exists a relevant fundamental theory which supports the inflationary scenario. We investigate the possibility that Weyl's gauge gravity theory could be such a fundamental theory. That is the reason why the Weyl's gauge invariant vector and scalar fields are naturally introduced. After rescaling the Weyl's gauge invariant Lagrangian…
Precision predictions of Starobinsky inflation with self-consistent Weyl-squared corrections
本文研究了星暴利克斯基膨胀模型中自洽的韦尔平方修正对膨胀预测的影响，计算了张量-标量比、张量倾斜和标量倾斜运行等观测量。
We present a detailed study of inflationary solutions in M-theory with higher order quantum corrections. We first exhaust all exact and asymptotic solutions of exponential and power-law expansions in this theory with quartic curvature corrections, and then perform a linear perturbation analysis around fixed points for the exact solutions in order to see which solutions are more generic and give interesting cosmological models. We find an interesting solution in which the external space expands exponentially and the internal space is static both in the original and Einstein frames. This may be …
We study quadratic gravity $R^2+R_{[μν]}^2$ in the Palatini formalism where the connection and the metric are independent. This action has a {\it gauged} scale symmetry (also known as Weyl gauge symmetry) of Weyl gauge field $v_μ= (\tildeΓ_μ-Γ_μ)/2$, with $\tildeΓ_μ$ ($Γ_μ$) the trace of the Palatini (Levi-Civita) connection, respectively. The underlying geometry is non-metric due to the $R_{[μν]}^2$ term acting as a gauge kinetic term for $v_μ$. We show that this theory has an elegant spontaneous breaking of gauged scale symmetry and mass generation in the absence of matter, where the necessa…
It is of great interest to connect cosmology in the early universe to the Standard Model of particle physics. In this paper, we try to construct a bounce inflation model with the standard model Higgs boson, where the one loop correction is taken into account in the effective potential of Higgs field. In this model, a Galileon term has been introduced to eliminate the ghost mode when bounce happens. Moreover, due to the fact that the Fermion loop correction can make part of the Higgs potential negative, one naturally obtains a large equation of state(EoS) parameter in the contracting phase, whi…
We consider the ghost-free higher order corrections to the Starobinsky model in the old minimal supergravity. In general, higher order corrections cannot be forbidden by symmetries, which likely violate the flatness of the scalaron potential and makes inflation difficult to explain the present Universe. We find a severe constraint on the dimensionless coupling of the $R^4$ correction as $-5.5 \times 10^{-8}<s<9.1 \times 10^{-8}$ from the recent results of the Planck observation. If we start from the chaotic initial condition, the constraint becomes much severer. However, in the case where the …
Weyl (scale) invariant theories of scalars and gravity can generate all mass scales spontaneously. In this paper we study a particularly simple version -- scale invariant $R^2$ gravity -- and show that, during an inflationary period, it leads to fluctuations which, for a particular parameter choice, are almost indistinguishable from normal $R^2$ inflation. Current observations place tight constraints on the primary coupling constant of this theory and predict a tensor to scalar ratio, $0.0033 > r > 0.0026$, which is testable with the next generation of cosmic microwave background experiments.
We present an up to cubic curvature correction to General Relativity with the following features: (i) its vacuum spectrum solely consists of a graviton and is ghost-free, (ii) it possesses well-behaved black hole solutions which coincide with those of Einsteinian cubic gravity, (iii) its cosmology is well-posed as an initial value problem and, most importantly, (iv) it entails a geometric mechanism triggering an inflationary period in the early universe (driven by radiation) with a graceful exit to a late-time cosmology arbitrarily close to $Λ$CDM.
We investigate the longitudinal ghost issue in Abelian vector inflation. It turns out that, within the class of Lorentz-invariant vector field theories with three degrees of freedom and without any extra (scalar) fields, the possibilities are essentially exhausted by the classical solution due to Larry Ford with an extremely flat potential which doesn't feel the fast roll of its argument. And, moreover, one needs to fulfil an extra condition on that potential in order to avoid severe gradient instability. At the same time, some Lorentz-violating modifications are worth to be explored.
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