Robustness of Starobinsky inflation in a minimal two-field scalar-tensor completion

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Main Author: Latosh, Boris
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Latosh, Boris
author_facet Latosh, Boris
contents We study a minimal two-field scalar-tensor completion of Starobinsky inflation motivated by the one-loop effective action of scalar-tensor gravity. The model admits an exact Starobinsky branch, but the relevant question is whether nearby trajectories generate observable multifield effects. We show that a non-trivial class of initial conditions relaxes to an attractor-connected slow-roll branch continuously connected to the Starobinsky solution. We then solve the coupled adiabatic and entropy perturbation equations numerically. On the branch studied here, the entropy mode remains sufficiently suppressed that its sourcing of the curvature perturbation is negligible, while the tensor sector is unchanged. The inflationary observables therefore remain effectively Starobinsky-like, providing a robustness test of Starobinsky inflation against a minimal radiative scalar-tensor deformation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_15931
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robustness of Starobinsky inflation in a minimal two-field scalar-tensor completion
Latosh, Boris
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
We study a minimal two-field scalar-tensor completion of Starobinsky inflation motivated by the one-loop effective action of scalar-tensor gravity. The model admits an exact Starobinsky branch, but the relevant question is whether nearby trajectories generate observable multifield effects. We show that a non-trivial class of initial conditions relaxes to an attractor-connected slow-roll branch continuously connected to the Starobinsky solution. We then solve the coupled adiabatic and entropy perturbation equations numerically. On the branch studied here, the entropy mode remains sufficiently suppressed that its sourcing of the curvature perturbation is negligible, while the tensor sector is unchanged. The inflationary observables therefore remain effectively Starobinsky-like, providing a robustness test of Starobinsky inflation against a minimal radiative scalar-tensor deformation.
title Robustness of Starobinsky inflation in a minimal two-field scalar-tensor completion
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.15931