Primordial spectra from modified Bekenstein-Hawking entropy law

Abstract

Many approaches to quantum gravity predict logarithmic corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Within the spacetime-thermodynamic description of gravity, such corrections lead to modified gravitational field equations. We study their effect on primordial perturbations during standard single-field slow-roll inflation. We derive the evolution equation for the comoving curvature perturbation and show that it retains the standard Mukhanov--Sasaki form, with the quantum-gravity correction entering through the time-dependent effective frequency. We compute the scalar and tensor primordial spectra at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order ($\mathrm{N}^3\mathrm{LO}$) in the Hubble-flow parameters, keeping the leading contribution from the logarithmic correction. The scalar spectrum remains nearly scale invariant, but the quantum-gravity correction shifts its tilt and runnings. Free tensor modes still propagate as in general relativity, although on the quantum-gravity-corrected background. This different response of the two sectors shifts both the tensor-to-scalar ratio and the single-field consistency relation, which provide the starting point for tracing the model's signatures through the post-inflationary evolution and into the CMB.