{"paper":{"title":"(Lovelock)$^2$ inflation: explaining the ACT data and equivalence to Higgs-Gauss-Bonnet inflation","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["astro-ph.CO","hep-th"],"primary_cat":"gr-qc","authors_text":"Andrea Addazi, Daulet Berkimbayev, Yermek Aldabergenov, Yifu Cai","submitted_at":"2025-12-24T13:32:31Z","abstract_excerpt":"We revisit the Starobinsky model of inflation in light of recent data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), which indicates a potential preference for a slightly larger scalar spectral index $n_s$ than predicted by the standard $R^2$ scenario. We demonstrate that a natural one-parameter generalization to a quadratic model $\\sim L+L^2$ in the Lovelock invariant $L=R+\\frac{\\alpha}{4}{\\cal G}$ ($\\cal G$ is the Gauss--Bonnet term), can effectively resolve this minor tension. Scalar-tensor formulation of this theory yields an Einstein-frame Starobinsky-type scalar potential augmented by Gauss"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2512.21167","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2512.21167/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}