The Use of Binary Black Holes Merging in AGN Disks for Hubble Constant Measurements

Abstract

We study the impact of environmental effects on the measurement of the Hubble constant ($H_0$) from gravitational wave (GW) observations of binary black hole mergers residing in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) near the central supermassive black hole. Using the potential hierarchical triple merger candidate GW190514-GW190521 in AGN J124942.3+344929 with its electromagnetic counterpart ZTF19abanrhr as a multimessenger case study, we demonstrate that environmental effects can be negligible for mergers at approximately tens to hundreds of Schwarzschild radii from the supermassive black hole. We find $H_0=40.9_{-8.9}^{+19.3}\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$ (median and 68\% credible interval) under a flat prior and flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmology. Incorporating GW170817 prior information improves constraints to $H_0=68.8_{-6.0}^{+7.7}\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$. We suggest that in general, AGN environments could serve as viable laboratories for cosmological studies from GW observations where environmental effects remain below detection thresholds.

8 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

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