Starobinsky Inflation and beyond in Einstein-Cartan Gravity

Abstract: We show that various types of scalaron-induced inflation, including the Starobinsky inflation, can be realized in the Einstein-Cartan gravity with the Nieh-Yan term and/or the Holst term. Einstein-Cartan $f(R)$ theory is known not to induce an additional scalar degree of freedom, the scalaron, contrary to the case in the metric formalism. However, there exist geometric quantities other than the Ricci scalar in the Einstein-Cartan gravity, such as the Nieh-Yan and the Holst terms. Once we introduce them in addition to the Ricci scalar and allow general combinations up to their quadratic order, the scalaron can become dynamical to realize inflation. With the rank of the associate matrix of the quadratic part to be one, the models are equivalent to the $\alpha$-attractor inflation and its deformation, including the Starobinsky inflation and quadratic chaotic inflation, etc. For more general cases with the rank greater than one, the models fall into the $k$-essence, realizing the rank one case in a particular limit.