Higgs G inflation

A new class of inflation models within the context of G inflation is proposed, in which the standard model Higgs boson can act as an inflaton thanks to Galileon-like nonlinear derivative interaction. The generated primordial density perturbation is shown to be consistent with the present observational data. We also make a general discussion on potential-driven G-inflation models, and find a new consistency relation between the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and the tensor spectral index n(T), r = -32 root 6n(T)/9, which is crucial in discriminating the present models from standard inflation with a canonical kinetic term.