Abstract
We outline the “dark siren” galaxy catalog method for cosmological inference using gravitational wave (GW) standard sirens, clarifying some common misconceptions in the implementation of this method. When a confident transient electromagnetic counterpart to a GW event is unavailable, the identification of a unique host galaxy is in general challenging. Instead, as originally proposed by Schutz, one can consult a galaxy catalog and implement a dark siren statistical approach incorporating all potential host galaxies within the localization volume. Trott & Huterer recently claimed that this approach results in a biased estimate of the Hubble constant, H0, when implemented on mock data, even if optimistic assumptions are made. We demonstrate explicitly that, as previously shown by multiple independent groups, the dark siren statistical method leads to an unbiased posterior when the method is applied to the data correctly. We highlight common sources of error possible to make in the generation of mock data and implementation of the statistical framework, including the mismodeling of selection effects and inconsistent implementations of the Bayesian framework, which can lead to a spurious bias.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 22 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Astronomical Journal |
Volume | 166 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Jun 2023 |
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In: Astronomical Journal, Vol. 166, No. 1, 22, 22.06.2023.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy catalog approach for dark siren gravitational-wave cosmology
AU - Gair, Jonathan R.
AU - Ghosh, Archisman
AU - Gray, Rachel
AU - Holz, Daniel E.
AU - Mastrogiovanni, Simone
AU - Mukherjee, Suvodip
AU - Palmese, Antonella
AU - Tamanini, Nicola
AU - Baker, Tessa
AU - Beirnaert, Freija
AU - Bilicki, Maciej
AU - Chen, Hsin Yu
AU - Dálya, Gergely
AU - Ezquiaga, Jose Maria
AU - Farr, Will M.
AU - Fishbach, Maya
AU - Garcia-Bellido, Juan
AU - Ghosh, Tathagata
AU - Huang, Hsiang Yu
AU - Karathanasis, Christos
AU - Leyde, Konstantin
AU - Hernandez, Ignacio Magaña
AU - Noller, Johannes
AU - Pierra, Gregoire
AU - Raffai, Peter
AU - Romano, Antonio Enea
AU - Seglar-Arroyo, Monica
AU - Steer, Danièle A.
AU - Turski, Cezary
AU - Vaccaro, Maria Paola
AU - Vallejo-Peña, Sergio Andrés
N1 - Funding Information: This work has made use of CosmoHub (Carretero et al. ; Tallada et al. ). CosmoHub has been developed by the Port d’Informació Científica (PIC), maintained through a collaboration of the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) and the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT) and the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC & IEEC), and was partially funded by the “Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación” program of the Spanish government. Funding Information: We thank Dragan Huterer and Emery Trott for clarifying the details of their analysis and for sharing their galaxy sample from the MICEcat simulation so as to enable us to provide a direct comparison to their work. We thank the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago for hosting “The quest for Precision Gravitational Wave Cosmology Workshop,” organized by Jose Maria Ezquiaga and DEH, where part of this work has been discussed. The research of A. Ghosh is supported by the Ghent University BOF project BOF/STA/202009/040 and the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) iBOF project BOF20/IBF/124. A.P. acknowledges support for this work was provided by NASA through a NASA Hubble Fellowship grant No. HST-HF2-51488.001-A, awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. S.M. thanks the Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam, for the hospitality while this work was developed. The work of S.M. is a part of the 〈 data ∣ theory 〉 Universe-Lab , which is supported by the TIFR and the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. The research of R.G. is supported by the European Research Council, starting grant SHADE 949572. N.T. acknowledges support from the French space agency CNES in the framework of LISA. The work of M.B. is supported by the Polish National Science Center through grant Nos. 2020/38/E/ST9/00395, 2018/30/E/ST9/00698, 2018/31/G/ST9/03388, and 2020/39/B/ST9/03494, and by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through grant No. DIR/WK/2018/12. Funding Information: We thank Dragan Huterer and Emery Trott for clarifying the details of their analysis and for sharing their galaxy sample from the MICEcat simulation so as to enable us to provide a direct comparison to their work. We thank the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago for hosting “The quest for Precision Gravitational Wave Cosmology Workshop,” organized by Jose Maria Ezquiaga and DEH, where part of this work has been discussed. The research of A. Ghosh is supported by the Ghent University BOF project BOF/STA/202009/040 and the Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO) iBOF project BOF20/IBF/124. A.P. acknowledges support for this work was provided by NASA through a NASA Hubble Fellowship grant No. HST-HF2-51488.001-A, awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS5-26555. S.M. thanks the Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam, for the hospitality while this work was developed. The work of S.M. is a part of the 〈data∣theory〉 Universe-Lab, which is supported by the TIFR and the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. The research of R.G. is supported by the European Research Council, starting grant SHADE 949572. N.T. acknowledges support from the French space agency CNES in the framework of LISA. The work of M.B. is supported by the Polish National Science Center through grant Nos. 2020/38/E/ST9/00395, 2018/30/E/ST9/00698, 2018/31/G/ST9/03388, and 2020/39/B/ST9/03494, and by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education through grant No. DIR/WK/2018/12. Publisher Copyright: © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/6/22
Y1 - 2023/6/22
N2 - We outline the “dark siren” galaxy catalog method for cosmological inference using gravitational wave (GW) standard sirens, clarifying some common misconceptions in the implementation of this method. When a confident transient electromagnetic counterpart to a GW event is unavailable, the identification of a unique host galaxy is in general challenging. Instead, as originally proposed by Schutz, one can consult a galaxy catalog and implement a dark siren statistical approach incorporating all potential host galaxies within the localization volume. Trott & Huterer recently claimed that this approach results in a biased estimate of the Hubble constant, H0, when implemented on mock data, even if optimistic assumptions are made. We demonstrate explicitly that, as previously shown by multiple independent groups, the dark siren statistical method leads to an unbiased posterior when the method is applied to the data correctly. We highlight common sources of error possible to make in the generation of mock data and implementation of the statistical framework, including the mismodeling of selection effects and inconsistent implementations of the Bayesian framework, which can lead to a spurious bias.
AB - We outline the “dark siren” galaxy catalog method for cosmological inference using gravitational wave (GW) standard sirens, clarifying some common misconceptions in the implementation of this method. When a confident transient electromagnetic counterpart to a GW event is unavailable, the identification of a unique host galaxy is in general challenging. Instead, as originally proposed by Schutz, one can consult a galaxy catalog and implement a dark siren statistical approach incorporating all potential host galaxies within the localization volume. Trott & Huterer recently claimed that this approach results in a biased estimate of the Hubble constant, H0, when implemented on mock data, even if optimistic assumptions are made. We demonstrate explicitly that, as previously shown by multiple independent groups, the dark siren statistical method leads to an unbiased posterior when the method is applied to the data correctly. We highlight common sources of error possible to make in the generation of mock data and implementation of the statistical framework, including the mismodeling of selection effects and inconsistent implementations of the Bayesian framework, which can lead to a spurious bias.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85163884126&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-3881/acca78
DO - 10.3847/1538-3881/acca78
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85163884126
SN - 0004-6256
VL - 166
JO - Astronomical Journal
JF - Astronomical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 22
ER -