First measurement of the Hubble constant from gravitational wave-galaxy cross-correlations

2025/12/17 by de Matos, Isabela Santiago, Dalang, Charles, Baker, Tessa +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.15380

openalex publication_date 2025/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/12/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We measure for the first time the Hubble constant (H₀) from the cross-correlation of galaxies and gravitational waves (GW), by applying the Peak Sirens method. This method consists of finding the peak of the 3D angular cross-spectrum C_ℓ(z,D_L) between the galaxy redshifts (z) and the GW luminosity distances (D_L). Using two GW events from the GWTC-3.0 catalog and the GLADE+ galaxy catalog, we make the first detection of the cross-correlation peak at 5.9σ confidence. This signal comes mostly from the best localized event in the catalog, GW190814, which alone provides a 3.4σ significance. Adding also the multimessenger event GW170817, but without using its known redshift, we find H₀ = 67⁺¹⁸_-15 km s^-1Mpc^-1 and the first observational constraint on the GW bias, b_{\rm gw} < 4.3 at 95% CI. These measurements set the stage for future novel cosmological constraints with this technique.

Citations

• Determining the Hubble Constant through Cross-Correlation of Galaxies and Gravitational Waves
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Cited by

• Cosmology beyond standard sirens: cross-correlation of gravitational waves and neutral hydrogen intensity mapping
• On the use of the Derivative Approximation for Likelihoods for Gravitational Wave Inference

Related

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• A standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant using GW170817 and the latest observations of the electromagnetic counterpart afterglow
• A Hubble constant estimation with dark standard sirens and galaxy cluster catalogues