Gravitational wave cosmology with galaxy surveys

Speaker

Antonella Palmese
University of California, Berkeley (USA)

Abstract

The synergy between gravitational wave (GW) experiments and large galaxy surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is most prominent in the standard siren method, which has already enabled several measurements of the Hubble Constant. A standard siren analysis was performed using the only GW event with an electromagnetic counterpart, GW170817, for the first time. We have later extended the analysis to compact object binary merger events without counterpart using DES and DESI galaxy catalogs, for which I will present the latest results. While galaxies' peculiar velocities represent one of the main sources of systematic uncertainty for standard siren measurements with nearby gravitational wave events, they also contain information about the growth of structure and gravity. I will present prospects for measuring peculiar velocities using distances from gravitational wave events to infer cosmological parameters and to test General Relativity. In the last part of the talk, I will mention an interesting possibility for the origin of the most massive binary black hole merger detected to date, GW190521, and how this could be related to dwarf galaxies or flaring Active Galactic Nuclei.

Date and Time

June 2 2022
10am KST (= 1am UTC)

Recording

Link to the recording on YouTube