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arXiv · 2606.29761

Estimating Cosmological Parameters from Localized Fast Radio Bursts: A Method for Removing Milky Way Dispersion-Measure Contributions

Yuchen Zhang·Yang Liu·Hongwei Yu·Puxun Wu
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Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are emerging as powerful probes for cosmology. However, cosmological inference based on FRB dispersion measures (DMs) is limited by uncertainties in the Milky Way contribution, including those from the Galactic interstellar medium and the Galactic halo. In this Letter, we propose a method that eliminates the Milky Way contribution by using DM differences between localized FRBs within the same sky region. The method removes the need to adopt a specific Galactic electron-density model or a prior assumption for the Galactic halo DM. We validate the reliability of the method using mock FRB samples and show that it successfully recovers the fiducial cosmological parameter. Applying the method to current localized FRB data, we obtain a constraint on $\Gamma \equiv \Omega_b H_0 f_{\rm d}$ that differs from that inferred using the conventional treatment of the Milky Way contribution. This difference highlights the importance of Milky Way DM systematics in FRB cosmology and demonstrates the potential of differential DM methods for future large samples of localized FRBs.

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Yuchen Zhang, Yang Liu, Hongwei Yu, Puxun Wu. 2026-06-29. Estimating Cosmological Parameters from Localized Fast Radio Bursts: A Method for Removing Milky Way Dispersion-Measure Contributions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.29761

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