Gravitational Wave Opacity from Gauge Field Dark Energy

Abstract: We show that astrophysical gravitational waves can undergo an anomalous modulation when propagating through cosmic gauge field dark energy. A sufficiently strong effect, dependent on the gauge field energy density, would appear as a redshift-dependent opacity, thereby impacting the use of gravitational wave standard sirens to constrain the expansion history of the Universe. We investigate a particular model of cosmic gauge field dark energy and show that at early times it behaves like dark radiation, whereas a novel interaction causes it to drive cosmic acceleration at late times. Joint constraints on the cosmological scenario due to type 1a supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, and cosmic microwave background data are presented. In view of these constraints, we show that standard siren luminosity distances in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.5 would systematically dim by up to 1%, which may be distinguishable by third-generation gravitational wave detectors.