Updating GUT-Scale Pole Higgs Inflation After ACT DR6

Abstract

We consider models of chaotic inflation driven by the real parts of a conjugate pair of Higgs superfields involved in the spontaneous breaking of a grand unification symmetry at a scale assuming its value within MSSM. We combine a superpotential, which is uniquely determined by applying a continuous R symmetry, with two fractional shift-symmetric Kaehler potentials introducing two free parameters (p,N). The inflationary observables provide an excellent match to the recent ACT data for 1.355<=p<=6.7 and 6x10^-5<= N<=0.7. The attainment of inflation allows for subplanckian inflaton values and possibly detectable primordial gravitational waves with (p,N) values of order unity. A solution to the mu problem of MSSM and baryogenesis via non-thermal leptogenesis can be also accommodated by embedding the model into a B-L extension of MSSM.