We study Weyl-invariant purely gravitational theories formulated within the Einstein-Cartan framework. In the Einstein-frame description, these models are dynamically equivalent to standard general relativity coupled to an axionlike pseudoscalar degree of freedom, which naturally drives a period of cosmic inflation. Without committing to a specific microscopic mechanism for reheating, we demonstrate that the postinflationary reheating dynamics play a crucial role in shaping the inflationary predictions. In particular, we show that assumptions about the reheating temperature and the equation-of-state parameter can significantly affect the predicted values of inflationary observables, highlighting the necessity of consistently incorporating reheating effects into the phenomenological analysis of inflationary models.

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• Alternative gravity theories
• Inflation