Inflation with $R^2$ term in the Palatini formalism

Abstract

We study scalar field inflation in $F(R)$ gravity in the Palatini formulation of general relativity. Unlike in the metric formulation, in the Palatini formulation $F(R)$ gravity does not introduce new degrees of freedom. However, it changes the relations between existing degrees of freedom, including the inflaton and spacetime curvature. Considering the case $F(R)=R+\alpha R^2$, we find that the $R^2$ term decreases the height of the effective inflaton potential. By adjusting the value of $\alpha$, this mechanism can be used to suppress the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ without limit in any scalar field model of inflation without affecting the spectrum of scalar perturbations.