Scale-invariant alternatives to general relativity. III. The inflation--dark-energy connection

We discuss the cosmological phenomenology of biscalar-tensor models displaying a maximally symmetric Einstein-frame kinetic sector and constructed on the basis of scale symmetry and volume-preserving diffeomorphisms. These theories contain a single dimensionful parameter $\Lambda_0$-associated with the invariance under the aforementioned restricted coordinate transformations-and a massless dilaton field. At large field values these scenarios lead to inflation with no generation of isocurvature perturbations. The corresponding predictions depend only on two dimensionless parameters, which characterize the curvature of the field--manifold and the leading order behavior of the inflationary potential. For $\Lambda_0=0$ the scale symmetry is unbroken and the dilaton admits only derivative couplings to matter, evading all fifth force constraints. For $\Lambda_0\neq 0$ the field acquires a run-away potential that can support a dark energy dominated era at late times. We confront a minimalistic realization of this appealing framework with present data sets. The impact of possible consistency relations among the early and late Universe dynamics that could appear within this setting is also discussed.