A new way to explore cosmological tensions using gravitational waves and strong gravitational lensing

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model-independent method combining gravitational wave and strong gravitational lensing data to accurately measure key cosmological parameters, potentially resolving existing tensions in cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using the distance sum rule with simulated future data to constrain Hubble constant and cosmic curvature independently.

Findings

Constraint on H_0 comparable to SH0ES with current data

Future data could surpass Planck 2018 precision for H_0

Method effectively explores cosmological tensions

Abstract

In recent years, a crisis in the standard cosmology has been caused by inconsistencies in the measurements of some key cosmological parameters, Hubble constant $H_0$ and cosmic curvature parameter $\Omega_K$ for example. It is necessary to remeasure them with the cosmological model-independent methods. In this paper, based on the distance sum rule, we present such a way to constrain $H_0$ and $\Omega_K$ simultaneously in the late universe from strong gravitational lensing time delay (SGLTD) data and gravitational wave (GW) standard siren data simulated from the future observation of the Einstein Telescope (ET). Based on the currently 6 observed SGLTD data, we find that the constraint precision of $H_0$ from the combined 100 GW events can be comparable with the measurement from SH0ES collaboration. As the number of GW events increases to 700, the constraint precision of $H_0$ will exceed that of the \textit{Planck} 2018 results. Considering 1000 GW events as the conservative estimation of ET in ten-year observation, we obtain $H_0=73.69\pm 0.36 \mathrm{~km~s^{-1}~Mpc^{-1}}$ with a 0.5\% uncertainty and $\Omega_K=0.076^{+0.068}_{-0.087}$. In addition, we simulate 55 SGL systems with 6.6\% uncertainty for the measurement of time-delay distance. By combining with 1000 GWs, we infer that $H_0=73.65\pm0.35 \mathrm{~km~s^{-1}~Mpc^{-1}}$ and $\Omega_K=0.008\pm0.048$. Our results suggest that this approach can play an important role in exploring cosmological tensions.