Determining the cosmic equation of state using future gravitational wave detectors

The expected chirp mass distribution of observed events for future gravitat ional wave detectors is extensively investigated in the presence of an exot ic fluid component with an arbitrary equation of state, -1 less than or equ al to omega (x) = p(x)/rho (x) < 0, i.e., the so-called dark energy compone nt. The results for a at model dominated by dark energy are compared to tho se for the standard at model dominated by cold dark matter. It is found tha t for a at universe the chirp mass distribution shows a sensitive dependenc e on <omega>(x), which may provide an independent and robust constraint on the cosmic equation of state.