Higgs inflation with the Holst and the Nieh–Yan term

Abstract

The action of loop quantum gravity includes the Holst term and/or the Nieh-Yan term in addition to the Ricci scalar. These terms are expected to couple non-minimally to the Higgs. Thus the Holst and Nieh-Yan terms contribute to the classical equations of motion, and they can have a significant impact on inflation. We derive inflationary predictions in the parameter space of the non-minimal couplings, including non-minimally coupled terms up to dimension 4. Successful inflation is possible even with zero or negative coupling of the Ricci scalar. Notably, inflation supported by the non-minimally coupled Holst term alone gives almost the same observables as the original metric formulation plateau Higgs inflation. A non-minimally coupled Nieh-Yan term alone cannot give successful inflation. When all three terms are considered, the predictions for the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio span almost the whole range probed by upcoming experiments. This is not true for the running of the spectral index, and many cases are highly tuned.