Flattening the inflaton potential beyond minimal gravity

Abstract

We review the status of the Starobinsky-like models for inflation beyond minimal gravity and discuss the unitarity problem due to the presence of a large non-minimal gravity coupling. We show that the induced gravity models allow for a self-consistent description of inflation and discuss the implications of the inflaton couplings to the Higgs field in the Standard Model.

Comments: 5 pages, Prepared for the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Gravitation, 3-7 July 2017