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arXiv · 2505.17886

Influence of cosmic expansion on gravitational waveforms

Tan Liu·Wen-Fan Feng·Zong-Kuan Guo
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Abstract

Gravitational waves undergo redshift as they propagate through the expanding universe, and the redshift may exhibit time-dependent drift. Consequently, for any isolated gravitational wave sources, the mass parameter $\mathcal{M}$ and the redshift $z$ exhibit an observational degeneracy, typically manifesting in the waveform as the redshifted mass $\mathcal{M}(1+z)$. Matching together the wave propagation and the wave generation solutions, we show that dimensionless source parameters depending on mass $\mathcal{M}$ can break this degeneracy. Notably, the postmerger signal from binary neutron stars contains several dimensionless parameters that satisfy this condition, including the quality factors of different frequency components and their frequency ratios. Considering the observations of solely the postmerger signal by the Neutron star Extreme Matter Observatory or the Einstein Telescope, based on the Fisher analysis, we find that the redshift can be measured with fractional uncertainties of $\sim30\%$ for sources at $0.01<z<0.09$. Additionally, we present a corrected derivation of the waveform phase correction due to the redshift drift effect, rectifying a sign error in previous studies.

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Tan Liu, Wen-Fan Feng, Zong-Kuan Guo. 2025-05-23. Influence of cosmic expansion on gravitational waveforms. https://doi.org/10.1103/wg63-t8bp

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