Higgs Inflation With Four-form Couplings

Abstract

We consider a new inflationary model in which an antisymmetric tensor field $A_{\nu\rho\sigma}$ and its four-form field strength $F_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}=4\partial_{[\mu} A_{\nu\rho\sigma]}$ are coupled to the scalar sector of the standard model and to the Ricci scalar $\mathcal{R}$. The four-form field induces modifications to the Higgs self-coupling constant, the cosmological constant, and the non-minimal coupling constant, which results in the modification to the inflaton potential. We also show that there is no need for the Higgs-gravity coupling in the presence of four-form-gravity interaction, but still can produce the right amount of density perturbation for inflation.