Inflation from spontaneously broken Weyl invariance in theories with torsion

Introduction of the torsion tensor on the space-time manifold 
leads to a Weyl invariant geometry, in which the torsion trace acts as 
a "U(1)" compensating field for the conformal transformations. Such 
symmetry can be extended to the whole matter sector included in the 
standard model by coupling the Higgs scalar (and all other possible 
fundamental scalars) to the torsion. A relevant question is then 
whether such framework can be used to describe cosmic inflation, as a 
spontaneous symmetry breaking phenomenon. It turns out that this is 
indeed possible because the Weyl invariance imposes a distinct field 
space geometry, which introduces a slow roll plateau in the otherwise 
too steep quartic potential dictated by Weyl symmetry. The model can 
have observable consequences that distinguish it from other 
inflationary scenarios, at least under some choices of initial 
conditions.