A Standard Siren Measurement of the Hubble Constant Using Gravitational-wave Events from the First Three LIGO/Virgo Observing Runs and the DESI Legacy Survey

We present a new constraint on the Hubble constant H0 using a sample of well-localized gravitational-wave (GW) events detected during the first three LIGO/Virgo observing runs as dark standard sirens. In the case of dark standard sirens, a unique host galaxy is not identified, and the redshift information comes from the distribution of potential host galaxies. From the third LIGO/Virgo observing run detections, we add the asymmetric-mass binary black hole GW190412 and the high-confidence GW candidates S191204r, S200129m, and S200311bg to the sample of dark standard sirens analyzed in Palmese et al. Our sample contains the top 20% (based on localization) GW events and candidates to date with significant coverage by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Legacy Survey. We combine the H0 posterior for eight dark siren events, finding H-0 = 79.8(-12.8)(+19.1) km s(-1 )Mpc(-1)(68% highest density interval) for a prior in H0 uniform between [20, 140] km s(-1 )Mpc(-1). This result shows that a combination of eight well-localized dark sirens combined with an appropriate galaxy catalog is able to provide an H0 constraint that is competitive (similar to 20% versus 18% precision) with a single bright standard siren analysis (i.e., assuming the electromagnetic counterpart) using GW170817. When combining the posterior with that from GW170817, we obtain H-0 = 72.77(- 7.55) (+11.0) km s(-1 )Mpc(-1) -. This result is broadly consistent with recent H-0 estimates from both the cosmic microwave background and supernovae.

Automated summary

We present a new constraint on the Hubble constant H0 using well-localized gravitational-wave events detected during the LIGO/Virgo observing runs as dark standard sirens. By combining the H0 posterior for eight dark siren events, we find a competitive H0 constraint that is consistent with recent estimates from the cosmic microwave background and supernovae.