Genesis--Starobinsky inflation can explain the ACT data

We propose a novel non-singular cosmological scenario within the framework of Horndeski gravity, consisting of three successive stages: (i) a Genesis phase, in which the Universe slowly expands from an asymptotically flat spacetime; (ii) a brief transition stage restoring General Relativity; and (iii) a Starobinsky inflationary phase. This construction is fully consistent within a viable parameter space: it remains weakly coupled, free from ghost and gradient instabilities, with luminal tensor and subluminal scalar perturbations throughout the entire evolution. Importantly, the Genesis phase induces characteristic corrections to the Starobinsky potential, which cannot be captured by simple ∑ᵢ cᵢ Rⁱ-type modifications. These corrections robustly enhance the scalar spectral index, thereby improving the agreement of Starobinsky inflation with recent CMB measurements, in particular the data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT).