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Abstract

In this work we analyze the radiative generation of mass scales in high-energy physics in classically scale-invariant models of particle physics and gravity. Radiative generation in this context is based on the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism which anomalously breaks scale-invariance. This approach is used to dynamically generate the Planck mass, Majorana masses for right-handed neutrinos and the Higgs mass from a common origin, and it also presents a convenient approach for reanalyzing the hierarchy problem. Within this framework, globally scale-invariant quadratic gravity allows to also describe cosmic inflation with a radiatively generated inflaton potential and the computed predictions for inflationary observables are within the strongest experimental constraints. The ensuing discussion with respect to the dynamical generation of the Planck mass and inflation is deepened by the inclusion of radiative effects due to gravitational degrees of freedom into the picture. In particular, we find that the quantum corrections of the massive spin-2 ghost, which is necessarily present in quadratic gravity, plays a decisive role in generating the Planck mass while simultaneously providing inflationary predictions which are consistent with the strongest experimental constraint