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Updated: Jul 23, 2025
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The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
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Cosmography Using Strongly Lensed Gravitational Waves from Binary Black Holes
Souvik Jana1, Shasvath J Kapadia1,2, Tejaswi Venumadhav1,3
1International Centre for Theoretical Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore 560089, India.
Physical Review Letters
|July 14, 2023
Summary
Future gravitational wave detectors will observe many binary black hole mergers. Analyzing lensed events and their time delays offers a novel way to estimate cosmological parameters at high redshifts.
Area of Science:
- Cosmology
- Astrophysics
- Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Background:
- Third generation gravitational wave detectors will observe millions of binary black hole (BBH) mergers.
- A small fraction of these BBH mergers (~1%) will be strongly lensed by intervening galaxies and clusters, creating multiple observable copies of the gravitational wave signals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a Bayesian analysis method for estimating cosmological parameters using lensed gravitational wave events.
- To assess the potential of lensed BBH mergers as a cosmological probe.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing the expected number of lensed BBH merger events.
- Analyzing the distribution of time delays between lensed gravitational wave images.
- Employing Bayesian inference for parameter estimation.
Main Results:
- The number of lensed events and their time delay distribution are dependent on cosmological parameters.
- The proposed method can provide cosmological constraints comparable to existing measurements.
- This technique probes a unique high-redshift regime (z~10).
Conclusions:
- Lensed binary black hole mergers offer a novel and powerful tool for precision cosmology.
- This method complements existing cosmological probes by exploring unexplored redshift ranges.
- Future gravitational wave observatories can significantly advance our understanding of the universe's expansion history.
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