Beschreibung
We report the first measurement of the Hubble constant 𝐻_0 using the stochastic gravitational-wave background arising from binary black hole mergers. This astrophysical background is sensitive to the expansion history of the Universe and, thus, can be used for cosmological parameter inference independently of not only electromagnetic methods, but also gravitational-wave standard siren approaches. We describe the background’s cosmological dependence and show how it can be used as a “stochastic siren” to measure 𝐻0. By analyzing existing resolved binary black hole mergers and the current nondetection of the background, we find that 𝐻_0 can be measured more accurately relative to using resolved mergers alone. We also note that the stochastic siren may serve a unique role in the Hubble tension in that the lower bound of the 𝐻_0 measurement would progressively increase with continued nondetection of the background.