Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion Rate Using the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey and the Fifth Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog
Abstract
Gravitational-wave standard sirens provide a calibration-free measure of distances, offering important input on the long-standing tension between early- and late-Universe measurements of the Hubble constant (H0). In the absence of an electromagnetic counterpart, the dark siren method can be employed to statistically correlate a gravitational wave event's localization with a galaxy catalog of potential hosts. We present a measurement of the Hubble constant using the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey Data Release 3 and the fifth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. Applying the dark siren method to a large, photometrically heterogeneous footprint required revised catalog-construction choices: a faint apparent-magnitude threshold (mr<20) to control known photometric-redshift bias, a bright apparent-magnitude threshold (mr>15.5) to exclude saturated sources, implementation of an evolving luminosity function parameterization, and de-biasing survey regions based on survey depth and photometric redshift precision. With these choices applied to DELVE, we obtain H0= 67.4+13.0−11.2 km s−1 Mpc−1 from dark sirens alone, and H0= 70.6+8.7−7.0 km s−1 Mpc−1 when combined with the bright siren GW170817. We test other galaxy catalog configuration choices, and find subdominant influence from photometric band choice and luminosity function parameterization on the final H0 posterior. Our results demonstrate that extending the dark siren method to wider-area, non-uniform galaxy surveys is feasible and provides additional constraining power on H0 relative to the spectral siren method, opening the door for analyses with forthcoming galaxy catalogs from LSST, Euclid, and Roman.
Related
- GWTC-5.0: An Introduction to Version 5.0 of the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
- GWTC-4.0: Updating the Gravitational-wave Transient Catalog with Observations from the First Part of the Fourth LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Observing Run
- GWTC-5.0: Observations from the Second Part of the Fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Observing Run and Updates to the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog
- GWTC-5.0: Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion Rate and Modified Gravitational-wave Propagation
- GWTC-5.0: Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion Rate and Modified Gravitational-wave Propagation
BibTeX
@misc{macbride2026constraints,
title = {{Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion Rate Using the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey and the Fifth Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog}},
author = {Sean Patrick MacBride and Isaac McMahon and Danny Laghi and David Sánchez-Cid and Felipe Andrade-Oliveira and Marcelle Soares-Santos and Maciej Bilicki and Sarah Ferraiuolo and Surhud More and Rachel Gray and Gergely Dálya},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.25909},
eprint = {2610.25909},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.25909},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Constraints on the Cosmic Expansion Rate Using the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey and the Fifth Gravitational Wave Transient Catalog
AU - Sean Patrick MacBride
AU - Isaac McMahon
AU - Danny Laghi
AU - David Sánchez-Cid
AU - Felipe Andrade-Oliveira
AU - Marcelle Soares-Santos
AU - Maciej Bilicki
AU - Sarah Ferraiuolo
AU - Surhud More
AU - Rachel Gray
AU - Gergely Dálya
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.25909
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.25909
AB - Gravitational-wave standard sirens provide a calibration-free measure of distances, offering important input on the long-standing tension between early- and late-Universe measurements of the Hubble constant (H_0). In the absence of an electromagnetic counterpart, the dark siren method can be employed to statistically correlate a gravitational wave event's localization with a galaxy catalog of potential hosts. We present a measurement of the Hubble constant using the DECam Local Volume Exploration Survey Data Release 3 and the fifth Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog. Applying the dark siren method to a large, photometrically heterogeneous footprint required revised catalog-construction choices: a faint apparent-magnitude threshold (m_r<20) to control known photometric-redshift bias, a bright apparent-magnitude threshold (m_r>15.5) to exclude saturated sources, implementation of an evolving luminosity function parameterization, and de-biasing survey regions based on survey depth and photometric redshift precision. With these choices applied to DELVE, we obtain H_0= 67.4^+13.0_−11.2 km s^−1 Mpc^−1 from dark sirens alone, and H_0= 70.6^+8.7_−7.0 km s^−1 Mpc^−1 when combined with the bright siren GW170817. We test other galaxy catalog configuration choices, and find subdominant influence from photometric band choice and luminosity function parameterization on the final H_0 posterior. Our results demonstrate that extending the dark siren method to wider-area, non-uniform galaxy surveys is feasible and provides additional constraining power on H_0 relative to the spectral siren method, opening the door for analyses with forthcoming galaxy catalogs from LSST, Euclid, and Roman.
ER -