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arXiv · 2305.19914

A standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant using GW170817 and the latest observations of the electromagnetic counterpart afterglow

A. Palmese·R. Kaur·A. Hajela·R. Margutti·A. McDowell·A. MacFadyen
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Abstract

We present a new constraint on the Hubble constant $H_0$ using the latest measurements of the electromagnetic counterpart to the gravitational wave (GW) event GW170817. We use the latest optical, X-ray and radio observations of the afterglow up to $\sim 3.5$ years after the GW detection, and properly take into account the impact of the host galaxy peculiar velocity. We find $75.46^{+5.34}_{-5.39}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ (68\% Credible Interval), a $\sim7\%$ precision measurement, which is a significant improvement compared to the $14\%$ precision of the first standard siren measurement. Our result is consistent within $1σ$ with the Cepheid-anchored Supernova and within $1.5 σ$ with the Cosmic Microwave Background measurements of the Hubble constant. We also explore the impact of the various assumptions made when fitting for the afterglow on the Hubble constant estimate.

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A. Palmese, R. Kaur, A. Hajela, R. Margutti, A. McDowell, A. MacFadyen. 2023-05-31. A standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant using GW170817 and the latest observations of the electromagnetic counterpart afterglow. https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.19914

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