ACT-Era Constraints on Single-Field Inflation in $f(T)$ Teleparallel Gravity
Abstract
We reassess single-field slow-roll inflation in teleparallel gravity with , motivated by recent measurements from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) that indicate a modest upward shift in the scalar spectral index . Using analytic approximations together with high-precision numerical calculations, we compute primordial predictions for representative potentials: power-law monomials, hilltop models, and -type plateaus. We find that torsional corrections controlled by generically suppress while keeping near its slow-roll value. As a result, modest positive can restore viability to sub-quadratic monomials and hilltop models that are disfavored in general relativity (GR), whereas -type plateaus remain compatible only in a limited range of : small may improve the fit but moderate drives the dynamics toward quadratic-like behaviour and increases . These signatures are observationally testable: improved cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode measurements will further discriminate among potential classes and place quantitative bounds on torsional deviations from GR.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.16530,
title = {ACT-Era Constraints on Single-Field Inflation in $f(T)$ Teleparallel Gravity},
author = {Feng-Yi Zhang and Rongrong Zhai and Li-Yang Chen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.16530},
year = {2026}
}