Hsin-Yu Chen
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Astronomy & Astrophysics
How fast is the universe expanding? The local expansion rate, the Hubble constant, has been measured in several ways, but the results disagree, and a decade of effort has not resolved this tension.
- Fields
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Physics
- Topics
gravitational waves
gravitational-wave cosmology
standard sirens
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Quantify systematic uncertainties that electromagnetic counterpart emission from merging neutron stars introduces into standard siren measurements of the Hubble constant.
- Develop techniques to mitigate these systematic errors in combined gravitational-wave and electromagnetic analyses.
- Build a standard siren measurement pipeline using the latest methods and publicly available gravitational-wave data to measure the Hubble constant precisely and accurately.
More about the research
Gravitational waves, ripples in space-time first detected by the LIGO observatory, offer an independent route. When black holes or neutron stars merge, the gravitational-wave signal reveals the distance to the source; combined with light (electromagnetic) observations of the same event, it can measure the expansion rate. This approach is called the "standard siren" method.
Why it matters
The disagreement between Hubble constant measurements is a major open question in cosmology. An independent, carefully calibrated gravitational-wave measurement could help show whether the tension reflects hidden errors in existing methods or new physics, sharpening our understanding of how the universe expands. This is basic science; its value lies in that understanding.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dragan Huterer
University of Michigan, MI·Astronomy & Astrophysics
Develop a method to measure the Hubble constant by cross-correlating gravitational-wave dark sirens with galaxy distributions. Dark sirens are merger events with no detected light.
Karan Jani
Vanderbilt University, TN·Astronomy & Astrophysics·Early-career
Establish a framework for multiband, multi-messenger observation of intermediate-mass black holes and binary neutron star mergers in the 0.1–10 Hz band that LIGO and LISA cannot reach, to guide next-generation gravitational-wave detectors.
Salvatore Vitale
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA·Astronomy & Astrophysics·Early-career
Develop statistical tools to characterize the population of merging black hole and neutron star binaries while accounting for marginal detections and for candidate signals that may not be astrophysical.
The school
University of Texas at Austin: 49 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 871 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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