Measuring the Hubble constant with a sample of kilonovae

  • Michael W. Coughlin
  • , Sarah Antier
  • , Tim Dietrich
  • , Ryan J. Foley
  • , Jack Heinzel
  • , Mattia Bulla
  • , Nelson Christensen
  • , David A. Coulter
  • , Lina Issa
  • , Nandita Khetan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

45 Scopus citations

Abstract

Kilonovae produced by the coalescence of compact binaries with at least one neutron star are promising standard sirens for an independent measurement of the Hubble constant (H0). Through their detection via follow-up of gravitational-wave (GW), short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) or optical surveys, a large sample of kilonovae (even without GW data) can be used for H0 contraints. Here, we show measurement of H0 using light curves associated with four sGRBs, assuming these are attributable to kilonovae, combined with GW170817. Including a systematic uncertainty on the models that is as large as the statistical ones, we find H0=73.8−5.8+6.3kms−1Mpc−1 and H0=71.2−3.1+3.2kms−1Mpc−1 for two different kilonova models that are consistent with the local and inverse-distance ladder measurements. For a given model, this measurement is about a factor of 2-3 more precise than the standard-siren measurement for GW170817 using only GWs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number4129
JournalNature communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 17 2020

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© 2020, The Author(s).

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