  Motivated by the gauge theory of gravity with local scaling symmetry proposed
recently in 1712.04537 and 1506.01807, we investigate whether the scalar field
therein can be responsible for the inflation. We show that the classical theory
would suffer from the difficulty that inflation can start but will never stop.
We explore possible solutions by invoking the symmetry breaking through quantum
effects. The effective potential of the scalar field is shown to have
phenomenologically interesting forms to give viable inflation models. The
predictions of physical observables agree well with current cosmological
measurements and can be further tested in future experiments searching for
primordial gravitational waves.
