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A new LIGO detection today has a mean distance estimate of 7412 Mpc. Does that mean that this LIGO distance calculation does not account for redshift, since that mean distance estimate translates to an event much older than the age of the universe?

Link to event: https://gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/S230528bt/view/

Qmechanic
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1 Answers1

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LIGO reports the luminosity distance, since that is the distance measure that enters into the amplitude of the gravitational wave after you account for cosmological effects. It also reports redshifts.

When you say 7412 Mpc corresponds to an event older than the age of the Universe, I think you are implicitly assuming that the 7412 Mpc refers to a comoving distance. This is not the case.

Andrew
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