pith. sign in

arxiv: 1907.03578 · v1 · pith:23JYVAHGnew · submitted 2019-07-03 · 🌀 gr-qc

Matters of Gravity: The Newsletter of the Division of Gravitational Physics of the American Physical Society. Number 53. June, 2019

David Garfinkle This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-25 09:42 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 🌀 gr-qc
keywords gravitational wavesstandard sirensHartleFestnewslettergravitational physicsAPSJames Hartle
0
0 comments X

The pith

The newsletter reports on gravitational-wave standard sirens and HartleFest.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

This issue of the Matters of Gravity newsletter compiles short updates for the gravitational physics community. It features an article by Daniel Holz and Maya Fishbach describing gravitational-wave standard sirens, a method that uses signals from merging compact objects to determine distances and the expansion rate of the universe. A second contribution by Gary Horowitz summarizes HartleFest, an event honoring James Hartle. A reader would care because these items convey current observational techniques and community activities without requiring access to primary research papers.

Core claim

The newsletter, edited by David Garfinkle, presents an explanation of gravitational-wave standard sirens by Holz and Fishbach together with a summary of HartleFest by Horowitz, serving as a vehicle for distributing recent information within the Division of Gravitational Physics.

What carries the argument

The newsletter format that collects and distributes contributed articles on selected topics in gravitational physics.

If this is right

  • Readers obtain a concise account of how gravitational-wave events can function as distance indicators independent of the cosmic distance ladder.
  • The community receives notice of a conference marking the contributions of James Hartle to general relativity and quantum gravity.
  • Regular issues of this type keep members informed of both technical developments and professional gatherings.
  • The format lowers the barrier for non-specialists to follow progress in gravitational-wave astronomy.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Standard-siren measurements could eventually resolve tensions between different determinations of the Hubble constant if enough events are detected.
  • Events such as HartleFest may strengthen institutional memory and mentoring networks within theoretical gravity.
  • Newsletters of this kind could be archived to trace how community priorities shift after major detections such as those by LIGO.

Load-bearing premise

The listed sections accurately represent the actual content supplied by the named authors.

What would settle it

Inspection of the published newsletter showing that it contains neither the standard-sirens article nor the HartleFest report would falsify the description of its contents.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 1907.03578 by David Garfinkle.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Posterior probability density for the Hubble constant given the gravitational-wave [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p006_1.png] view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Posterior density on the Hubble constant from 50 simulated binary neutron star [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p008_2.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

we hear that..., by David Garfinkle Gravitational-wave Standard Sirens, by Daniel Holz and Maya Fishbach HartleFest, by Gary Horowitz

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

0 major / 0 minor

Summary. The manuscript is Number 53 (June 2019) of the Matters of Gravity newsletter published by the Division of Gravitational Physics of the American Physical Society. It consists of an editorial note ('we hear that...') by David Garfinkle, an invited article on gravitational-wave standard sirens by Daniel Holz and Maya Fishbach, and a report on HartleFest by Gary Horowitz.

Significance. As a community newsletter rather than a research article, the manuscript serves to disseminate information on recent developments and events in gravitational physics to APS division members. Its value lies in compiling contributed pieces that highlight ongoing work (e.g., standard sirens) and community activities (e.g., HartleFest), provided the listed sections accurately represent the contributed content.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

0 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their review of Newsletter Number 53 and for recommending acceptance. The report accurately describes the content and purpose of this community newsletter.

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

Newsletter compilation shows no circularity

full rationale

This is a community newsletter (arXiv:1907.03578) compiling contributed articles rather than a research paper containing derivations, equations, predictions, or fitted parameters. The listed sections (editorial note plus two invited pieces) match the expected structure with no internal claims that could reduce to self-definition, fitted inputs, or self-citation chains. No load-bearing steps exist to analyze.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

No free parameters, axioms, or invented entities are present because this is an informational newsletter rather than a theoretical or empirical research paper.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5547 in / 749 out tokens · 25811 ms · 2026-05-25T09:42:19.608918+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

44 extracted references · 44 canonical work pages · 1 internal anchor

  1. [1]

    B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, M. R. Abernathy, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, and Adams. Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA. Living Reviews in Relativity , 21(1):3, Apr 2018

    work page 2018

  2. [2]

    B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, 7 P. Addesso, R. X. Adhikari, and V. B. Adya. A gravitational-wave standard siren mea- surement of the Hubble constant. Nature, 551(7678):85–88, Nov 2017

    work page 2017

  3. [3]

    B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, P. Addesso, R. X. Adhikari, and V. B. Adya. Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A. Ap. J. Lett., 848(2):L13, Oct 2017

    work page 2017

  4. [4]

    B. P. Abbott, R. Abbott, T. D. Abbott, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, C. Adams, T. Adams, P. Addesso, R. X. Adhikari, and V. B. Adya. Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger. Ap. J. Lett. , 848(2):L12, Oct 2017

    work page 2017

  5. [5]

    B. P. Abbott and et al. Gw170817: Observation of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star inspiral. Phys. Rev. Lett., 119:161101, Oct 2017

    work page 2017

  6. [6]

    P. A. R. Ade, N. Aghanim, M. Arnaud, M. Ashdown, J. Aumont, and Baccigalupi. Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 594:A13, Sep 2016

    work page 2015

  7. [7]

    Amendola, I

    L. Amendola, I. Sawicki, M. Kunz, and I. D. Saltas. Direct detection of gravitational waves can measure the time variation of the Planck mass. ArXiv e-prints , December 2017

    work page 2017

  8. [8]

    Belgacem, Y

    E. Belgacem, Y. Dirian, S. Foffa, and M. Maggiore. The gravitational-wave luminosity distance in modified gravity theories. ArXiv e-prints, December 2017

    work page 2017

  9. [9]

    Estimating cosmological parameters by the simulated data of gravitational waves from the Einstein Telescope.Phys

    Rong-Gen Cai and Tao Yang. Estimating cosmological parameters by the simulated data of gravitational waves from the Einstein Telescope.Phys. Rev. D, 95(4):044024, Feb 2017

    work page 2017

  10. [10]

    Astro2020 Science White Paper: Cosmology with a Space-Based Gravitational Wave Observatory

    Robert Caldwell, Mustafa Amin, Craig Hogan, Kelly Holley-Bockelmann, Daniel Holz, Philippe Jetzer, Ely Kovitz, Priya Natarajan, David Shoemaker, and Tristan Smith. Astro2020 Science White Paper: Cosmology with a Space-Based Gravitational Wave Observatory. In BAAS, volume 51, page 67, May 2019

    work page 2019

  11. [11]

    Hsin-Yu Chen, Maya Fishbach, and Daniel E. Holz. A two per cent Hubble constant measurement from standard sirens within five years. Nature, 562:545–547, Oct 2018

    work page 2018

  12. [12]

    D. A. Coulter, R. J. Foley, C. D. Kilpatrick, M. R. Drout, A. L. Piro, B. J. Shappee, M. R. Siebert, J. D. Simon, N. Ulloa, D. Kasen, B. F. Madore, A. Murguia-Berthier, Y.-C. Pan, J. X. Prochaska, E. Ramirez-Ruiz, A. Rest, and C. Rojas-Bravo. Swope supernova survey 2017a (sss17a), the optical counterpart to a gravitational wave source. 358(6370):1556–1558, 2017

    work page 2017

  13. [13]

    Curt Cutler and Daniel E. Holz. Ultrahigh precision cosmology from gravitational waves. Phys. Rev. D , 80(10):104009, Nov 2009

    work page 2009

  14. [14]

    Holz, Scott A

    Neal Dalal, Daniel E. Holz, Scott A. Hughes, and Bhuvnesh Jain. Short GRB and binary black hole standard sirens as a probe of dark energy. Phys. Rev. D , 74(6):063006, Sep 2006

    work page 2006

  15. [15]

    D´ alya, G

    G. D´ alya, G. Galg´ oczi, L. Dobos, Z. Frei, I. S. Heng, R. Macas, C. Messenger, P. Raffai, and R. S. de Souza. GLADE: A galaxy catalogue for multimessenger searches in the advanced gravitational-wave detector era. MNRAS, 479(2):2374–2381, Sep 2018. 8

    work page 2018

  16. [16]

    Del Pozzo

    W. Del Pozzo. Inference of cosmological parameters from gravitational waves: Applica- tions to second generation interferometers. Phys. Rev. D , 86(4):043011, August 2012

    work page 2012

  17. [17]

    Walter Del Pozzo, Tjonnie G. F. Li, and Chris Messenger. Cosmological inference using only gravitational wave observations of binary neutron stars.Phys. Rev. D, 95(4):043502, Feb 2017

    work page 2017

  18. [18]

    Holz, Alessand ro Melchiorri, and Fabrizio Renzi

    Eleonora Di Valentino, Daniel E. Holz, Alessand ro Melchiorri, and Fabrizio Renzi. Cos- mological impact of future constraints on H 0 from gravitational-wave standard sirens. Phys. Rev. D , 98(8):083523, Oct 2018

    work page 2018

  19. [19]

    S. M. Feeney, H. V. Peiris, A. R. Williamson, S. M. Nissanke, D. J. Mortlock, J. Alsing, and D. Scolnic. Prospects for resolving the Hubble constant tension with standard sirens. ArXiv e-prints, February 2018

    work page 2018

  20. [20]

    Binary inspiral, gravitational radiation, and cosmology

    Lee Samuel Finn. Binary inspiral, gravitational radiation, and cosmology. Phys. Rev. D, 53(6):2878–2894, Mar 1996

    work page 1996

  21. [21]

    Fishbach, R

    M. Fishbach, R. Gray, I. Maga˜ na Hernandez, H. Qi, A. Sur, F. Acernese, L. Aiello, A. Allocca, M. A. Aloy, and A. Amato. A Standard Siren Measurement of the Hub- ble Constant from GW170817 without the Electromagnetic Counterpart. Ap. J. Lett. , 871(1):L13, Jan 2019

    work page 2019

  22. [22]

    Guidorzi, R

    C. Guidorzi, R. Margutti, D. Brout, D. Scolnic, W. Fong, K. D. Alexander, P. S. Cow- perthwaite, J. Annis, E. Berger, and P. K. Blanchard. Improved Constraints on H 0 from a Combined Analysis of Gravitational-wave and Electromagnetic Emission from GW170817. Ap. J. Lett. , 851(2):L36, Dec 2017

    work page 2017

  23. [23]

    D. E. Holz and S. A. Hughes. Using Gravitational-Wave Standard Sirens. Ap. J., 629:15– 22, August 2005

    work page 2005

  24. [24]

    Holz, Scott A

    Daniel E. Holz, Scott A. Hughes, and Bernard F. Schutz. Measuring cosmic distances with standard sirens. Physics Today, 71(12):34–40, Dec 2018

    work page 2018

  25. [25]

    A Hubble constant measurement from superluminal motion of the jet in GW170817

    Kenta Hotokezaka, Ehud Nakar, Ore Gottlieb, Samaya Nissanke, Kento Masuda, Gregg Hallinan, Kunal P. Mooley, and Adam. T. Deller. A Hubble constant measurement from superluminal motion of the jet in GW170817. arXiv e-prints , page arXiv:1806.10596, Jun 2018

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  26. [26]

    Macarena Lagos, Maya Fishbach, Philippe Landry, and Daniel E. Holz. Standard sirens with a running Planck mass. Phys. Rev. D , 99(8):083504, Apr 2019

    work page 2019

  27. [27]

    Eric V. Linder. No slip gravity. JCAP, 2018(3):005, Mar 2018

    work page 2018

  28. [28]

    C. L. MacLeod and C. J. Hogan. Precision of Hubble constant derived using black hole binary absolute distances and statistical redshift information.Phys. Rev. D, 77(4):043512, February 2008

    work page 2008

  29. [29]

    Messenger and J

    C. Messenger and J. Read. Measuring a Cosmological Distance-Redshift Relationship Using Only Gravitational Wave Observations of Binary Neutron Star Coalescences.Phys. Rev. Lett., 108(9):091101, Mar 2012. 9

    work page 2012

  30. [30]

    Measuring the hubble constant: Gravitational wave observations meet galaxy clustering

    Remya Nair, Sukanta Bose, and Tarun Deep Saini. Measuring the hubble constant: Gravitational wave observations meet galaxy clustering. Phys. Rev. D , 98:023502, Jul 2018

    work page 2018

  31. [31]

    Nishizawa

    A. Nishizawa. Generalized framework for testing gravity with gravitational-wave propa- gation. I. Formulation. ArXiv e-prints, October 2017

    work page 2017

  32. [32]

    Nissanke, D

    S. Nissanke, D. E. Holz, N. Dalal, S. A. Hughes, J. L. Sievers, and C. M. Hirata. De- termining the Hubble constant from gravitational wave observations of merging compact binaries. ArXiv e-prints, July 2013

    work page 2013

  33. [33]

    Nissanke, D

    S. Nissanke, D. E. Holz, S. A. Hughes, N. Dalal, and J. L. Sievers. Exploring Short Gamma-ray Bursts as Gravitational-wave Standard Sirens. Ap. J., 725:496–514, Decem- ber 2010

    work page 2010

  34. [34]

    Holz, and David N

    Kris Pardo, Maya Fishbach, Daniel E. Holz, and David N. Spergel. Limits on the number of spacetime dimensions from GW170817. JCAP, 2018(7):048, Jul 2018

    work page 2018

  35. [35]

    A. G. Riess, L. M. Macri, S. L. Hoffmann, D. Scolnic, S. Casertano, A. V. Filippenko, B. E. Tucker, M. J. Reid, D. O. Jones, J. M. Silverman, R. Chornock, P. Challis, W. Yuan, P. J. Brown, and R. J. Foley. A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant. Ap. J., 826:56, July 2016

    work page 2016

  36. [36]

    B. F. Schutz. Determining the Hubble constant from gravitational wave observations. Nature, 323:310, September 1986

    work page 1986

  37. [37]

    Bernard F. Schutz. Lighthouses of Gravitational Wave Astronomy. In Marat Gilfanov, Rashid Sunyeav, and Eugene Churazov, editors, Lighthouses of the Universe: The Most Luminous Celestial Objects and Their Use for Cosmology , page 207, Jan 2002

    work page 2002

  38. [38]

    Bernard F. Schutz. Networks of gravitational wave detectors and three figures of merit. Classical and Quantum Gravity , 28(12):125023, Jun 2011

    work page 2011

  39. [39]

    Singer, Larry R

    Leo P. Singer, Larry R. Price, Ben Farr, Alex L. Urban, Chris Pankow, Salvatore Vitale, John Veitch, Will M. Farr, Chad Hanna, and Kipp Cannon. The First Two Years of Electromagnetic Follow-up with Advanced LIGO and Virgo. Ap. J. , 795(2):105, Nov 2014

    work page 2014

  40. [40]

    Soares-Santos, D

    M. Soares-Santos, D. E. Holz, J. Annis, R. Chornock, K. Herner, E. Berger, D. Brout, H. Y. Chen, R. Kessler, and M. Sako. The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. I. Discovery of the Optical Counterpart Using the Dark Energy Camera. Ap. J. Lett. , 848(2):L16, Oct 2017

    work page 2017

  41. [41]

    Soares-Santos, A

    M. Soares-Santos, A. Palmese, W. Hartley, J. Annis, J. Garcia-Bellido, O. Lahav, Z. Doc- tor, M. Fishbach, D. E. Holz, and H. Lin. First Measurement of the Hubble Constant from a Dark Standard Siren using the Dark Energy Survey Galaxies and the LIGO/Virgo BinaryBlack-hole Merger GW170814. Ap. J. Lett. , 876(1):L7, May 2019

    work page 2019

  42. [42]

    Taylor, Jonathan R

    Stephen R. Taylor, Jonathan R. Gair, and Ilya Mandel. Cosmology using advanced gravitational-wave detectors alone. Phys. Rev. D , 85(2):023535, Jan 2012

    work page 2012

  43. [43]

    Measuring the hubble constant with neutron star black hole mergers

    Salvatore Vitale and Hsin-Yu Chen. Measuring the hubble constant with neutron star black hole mergers. Phys. Rev. Lett., 121:021303, Jul 2018. 10

    work page 2018

  44. [44]

    Improving cosmo- logical parameter estimation with the future gravitational-wave standard siren observa- tion from the Einstein Telescope

    Xuan-Neng Zhang, Ling-Feng Wang, Jing-Fei Zhang, and Xin Zhang. Improving cosmo- logical parameter estimation with the future gravitational-wave standard siren observa- tion from the Einstein Telescope. Phys. Rev. D , 99(6):063510, Mar 2019. 11 Hartlefest Gary Horowitz, University of California Santa Barbara horowitz-at-ucsb.edu On June 7, 2019, approxima...

    work page 2019