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arXiv · 2608.20095

Non-minimal Unimodular Inflation

Manda Malekpour·Kourosh Nozar·Fateme Rajabi·Narges Rashidi
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Abstract

We study an extension of the unimodular cosmological inflation in the context of the non-minimal coupling of a generic scalar field with gravitational sector. We consider the non-minimal coupling of the scalar field and gravity as the only source of energy-momentum tensor in this setup. Without introducing new particles other than those already existing in electroweak theory, the generic scalar field's non-minimal coupling is responsible for the generation of the seeds of perturbations for structure formation and the observed Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies in this scenario. We calculate inflation parameters in both the Jordan and Einstein frames, and then we study primordial spectral indices for slow-roll parameters in Einstein's frame at the first and second orders. The numerical results of this model are consistent with the Planck2018 and BICEP/Keck joint data sets in some subspaces of the model parameters space. By considering a sufficient amount of inflation, we estimate the strength of the non-minimal coupling parameter, $\xi$, to find appropriate new constraints on the values of this parameter. By comparing the numerical values of the inflation observables in two frames and also with observation, we comment on the issue of frames in this framework.

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Manda Malekpour, Kourosh Nozar, Fateme Rajabi, Narges Rashidi. 2026-08-20. Non-minimal Unimodular Inflation. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dark.2023.101405

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