We consider inflation within a model framework where the Higgs boson arises as a pseudo-Goldstone boson associated with the breaking of a global symmetry at a scale significantly larger than the electroweak one. We show that in such a model the scalar self-couplings can be parametrically suppressed and, consequently, the nonminimal couplings to gravity can be of order one or less, while the inflationary predictions of the model remain compatible with the precision cosmological observations. Furthermore, in the model we study, the existence of the electroweak scale is entirely due to the inflaton field. Our model therefore suggests that inflation and low energy particle phenomenology may be more entwined than assumed so far.

• Received 21 November 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.035004