Low scale Higgs inflation with Gauss–Bonnet coupling

Abstract

Recent LHC data provides precise values of coupling constants of the Higgs field, however, these measurements do not determine its coupling with gravity. We explore this freedom to see whether Higgs field non-minimally coupled to Gauss–Bonnet term in 4-dimensions can lead to inflation generating the observed density fluctuations. We obtain analytical solution for this model and that the exit of inflation (with a finite number of e-folding) demands that the energy scale of inflation is close to Electro-weak scale. We compare the scalar and tensor power spectrum of our model with PLANCK data and discuss its implications.