Non-minimally gravity-coupled inflationary models

Abstract

We consider the non-supersymmetric models of chaotic (driven by a quadratic potential) and hybrid inflation, taking into account the minimal possible radiative corrections to the inflationary potential. We show that two simple coupling functions f(σ) (with a parameter cR involved) between the inflaton field σ and the Ricci scalar curvature ensure, for sub-Planckian values of the inflaton field, observationally acceptable values for the spectral index, ns, and sufficient reheating after inflation. In the case of chaotic inflation we consider two models with large cR's resulting to ns≃0.955 or 0.967 and tensor-to-scalar ratio r≃0.2 or 0.003, respectively. In the case of hybrid inflation, the selected f(σ) assists us to obtain hilltop-type inflation. For values of the relevant mass parameter, m, less than 106 TeV and the observationally central value of ns, we find cR≃(0.015–0.078) with the relevant coupling constants λ=κ and the symmetry breaking scale, M, confined in the ranges (2⋅10−7–0.001) and (1–16.8)⋅1017 GeV, respectively.