Strong lensing cosmography using binary-black-hole mergers: Prospects for the near future
Phys. Rev. D 113, 103522 – Published 13 May, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xq61-pqm6
Abstract
A small fraction of gravitational-wave (GW) signals from binary black holes (BBHs) will be gravitationally lensed by intervening galaxies and galaxy clusters. Strong lensing will produce multiple identical copies of the GW signal arriving at different times. Jana et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 261401 (2023)] recently proposed a method to constrain cosmological parameters using strongly lensed GW events detected by next-generation (XG) detectors. The idea is that the number of strongly lensed GW events and the distribution of their lensing time delays encode imprints of the cosmological parameters. From the observed number of lensed GW events (tens of thousands) and their time delay distribution, this method can provide a new probe of cosmology, obtaining information at intermediate redshifts. In this work, we explore the possibility of doing lensing cosmography using upcoming observations of the upgraded LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) network. This requires incorporating the detector network selection effects in the analysis, which was neglected earlier. We expect dozens of lensed GW events to be detected by upgraded LVK detectors, potentially enabling modest constraints on cosmological parameters. Even with relatively modest numbers of lensed detections, we demonstrate the potential of lensing cosmography. For XG detectors, our revised forecasts are consistent with the earlier forecasts that neglected the selection effects.
