Reconciling the ACT Preference in $f(T)$ Gravity: Inflation and Reheating Constraints

Abstract Recent measurements from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) indicate a preference for a slightly bluer scalar spectral index compared to Planck-only analyses, placing canonical inflationary models in General Relativity (GR) under mild pressure. We demonstrate that $f(T)$ gravity systematically accommodates these dataset-dependent preferences by suppressing the tensor-to-scalar ratio in monomial and hilltop potentials, and by shifting the spectral index of E-models toward the ACT-favored region. Incorporating Big Bang Nucleosynthesis bounds, we break the degeneracy between the inflationary $e$-folding number and the post-inflationary thermal history. A direct side-by-side comparison reveals that reconciling models like the Starobinsky potential with ACT data in GR strictly necessitates a non-standard, stiff (kinetic-dominated) reheating phase. In contrast, torsional corrections in $f(T)$ gravity significantly enlarge the viable parameter space, relaxing these stringent phenomenological requirements and establishing a coherent framework that jointly constrains CMB observables and reheating dynamics.