Inflationary universe from higher derivative quantum gravity coupled with scalar electrodynamics

We study inflation for a quantum scalar electrodynamics model in curved space time and for higher derivative quantum gravity (QG) coupled with scalar electrodynamics. The corresponding renormalization group (RG) improved potential is evaluated for both theories in Jordan frame where non-minimal scalar gravitational coupling sector is explicitly kept. The role of one-loop quantum corrections is investigated by showing how these corrections enter in the expressions for the slow-roll parameters, the spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio and how they influence the bound of the Hubble parameter at the beginning of the primordial acceleration. We demonstrate that the viable inflation maybe successfully realized, so that it turns out to be consistent with last Planck and BICEP2/Keck Array data. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.