UCL/Flatiron Institute: Gravitational Waves Will Settle Cosmic Conundrum

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UCL/Flatiron Institute: Gravitational Waves Will Settle Cosmic Conundrum

Post by bystander » Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:05 pm

Gravitational Waves Will Settle Cosmic Conundrum
University College London | Flatiron Institute | 2019 Feb 14

Measurements of gravitational waves from ~50 binary neutron stars over the next decade will definitively resolve an intense debate over how fast our universe is expanding, find an international team including UCL and Flatiron Institute cosmologists.

The cosmos has been expanding for 13.8 billion years and its present rate of expansion, known as the Hubble constant, gives the time elapsed since the Big Bang.

However, the two best methods used to measure the Hubble constant do not agree, suggesting our understanding of the structure and history of the universe -- called the "standard cosmological model" -- may be wrong.

The study, published today in Physical Review Letters, shows how new independent data from gravitational waves emitted by binary neutron stars called "standard sirens" will break the deadlock between the measurements once and for all. ...

Prospects for Resolving the Hubble Constant Tension with Standard Sirens ~ Stephen M. Feeney et al
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