Natural metric-affine inflation

We consider here natural inflation in the low energy (two -derivative) metric-affine theory containing only the minimal degrees of freedom in the inflationary sector, i.e. the massless graviton and the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (PNGB). This theory contains the Ricci -like and parity -odd Holst invariants together with non -minimal couplings between the PNGB and the above -mentioned invariants. The Palatini and Einstein-Cartan realizations of natural inflation are particular cases of our construction. Explicit models of this type featuring non -minimal couplings are shown to emerge from the microscopic dynamics of a QCD-like theory with an either sub-Planckian or trans-Planckian confining scale and that is renormalizable on Minkowski spacetime. Moreover, for these models, we find regions of the parameter space where the inflationary predictions agree with the most recent observations at the 2 sigma level. We find that in order to enter the 1 sigma region it is necessary (and sufficient) to have a finite value of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter and a sizable non -minimal coupling between the inflaton and the Holst invariant (with sign opposite to the Barb ero-Immirzi parameter). Indeed, in this case the potential of the canonically normalized inflaton develops a plateau as shown analytically.