Joint observations of late universe probes: cosmological parameter constraints from gravitational wave and Type Ia supernova data

TL;DR

This paper combines gravitational wave and Type Ia supernova data to improve constraints on late-Universe cosmological parameters, demonstrating the potential of joint observations to enhance precision in cosmology.

Contribution

It introduces a method to jointly analyze GW and SNe Ia data, providing more precise late-Universe cosmological constraints than previous approaches.

Findings

Combined GW and SNe Ia data constrain H0 to ~20%.

Omega_m is constrained to ~8% with combined data.

Dark energy equation of state w is constrained to ~30%.

Abstract

The growing tensions between the early Universe and the late Universe increasingly highlight the importance of developing precise probes for late cosmology. As significant late-Universe probes, Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and gravitational waves (GWs) can provide measurements of relative and absolute distances, respectively. Their complementary nature is likely to break the degeneracies among cosmological parameters, thereby yielding more precise constraints. In this study, we use 43 gravitational-wave sources from the Third LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-3) and 1590 SNe Ia from Pantheon+ compilation to constrain the dark energy models, as an attempt to achieve precise late-Universe cosmological constraints. For the dark siren GW event, we estimate the corresponding redshift using the binary black hole redshift distribution model. The combination of GW and SNe Ia data could provide the precision on the Hubble constant (H0) and the present matter density (Omega_m) of approximately 20% and 8% for the LambdaCDM model. If we consider the equation of state of dark energy (w), the combination sample constrains the precision of w to approximately 30%. Although the combination of GW and SNe Ia observations effectively breaks degeneracies among various cosmological parameters, yielding more stringent constraints, the precision of these constraints still does not meet the stringent standards required by precision cosmology. However, it is reasonable to anticipate that, in the near future, the joint observations of GWs and SNe Ia will become a powerful tool, particularly in the late Universe, for the precise measurement of cosmological parameters.