Nonminimal Coleman--Weinberg Inflation with an $R^2$ term

Abstract

We extend the Coleman--Weinberg inflationary model where a scalar field $\phi$ is non-minimally coupled to gravity with the addition of the $R^2$ term. We express the theory in terms of two scalar fields and going to the Einstein frame we employ the Gildener--Weinberg formalism, compute the one-loop effective potential and essentially reduce the problem to the case of single-field inflation. It turns out that there is only one free parameter, namely, the mixing angle between the scalars. For a wide range of this angle, we compute the inflationary observables which are in agreement with the latest experimental bounds. The effect of the $R^2$ term is that it lowers the value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$.