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The identification of the electromagnetic (EM) counterpart candidate ZTF19abanrhr to the binary black hole merger GW190521 opens the possibility to infer cosmological parameters from this standard siren with a uniquely identified host galaxy. The distant merger allows for cosmological inference beyond the Hubble constant. Here, we show that the three-dimensional spatial location of ZTF19abanrhr calculated from the EM data remains consistent with the latest sky localization of GW190521 provided by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration. If ZTF19abanrhr is associated with the GW190521 merger, and assuming a flat wCDM model, we find that $H_0=48^{+23}_{-10}\, \mathrm{km} \, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$, $\Omega _m=0.35^{+0.41}_{-0.26}$, and $w_0=-1.31^{+0.61}_{-0.48}$ (median and $68{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ credible interval). If we use the Hubble constant value inferred from another gravitational-wave event, GW170817, as a prior for our analysis, together with assumption of a flat ΛCDM and the model-independent constraint on the physical matter density ωm from Planck, we find $H_0=68.9^{+8.7}_{-6.0}\, \mathrm{km} \, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$.

The detection of an intermediate-mass black hole population (102–106 M⊙) will provide clues to their formation environments (e.g. discs of active galactic nuclei, globular clusters) and illuminate a potential pathway to produce supermassive black holes. Ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are sensitive to mergers that can form intermediate-mass black holes weighing up to ∼450 M⊙. However, ground-based detector data contain numerous incoherent short duration noise transients that can mimic the gravitational-wave signals from merging intermediate-mass black holes, limiting the sensitivity of searches. Here, we follow-up on binary black hole merger candidates using a ranking statistic that measures the coherence or incoherence of triggers in multiple-detector data. We use this statistic to rank candidate events, initially identified by all-sky search pipelines, with lab-frame total masses ≳ 55 M⊙ using data from LIGO’s second observing run. Our analysis does not yield evidence for new intermediate-mass black holes. However, we find support for eight stellar-mass binary black holes not reported in the first LIGO–Virgo gravitational wave transient catalogue GWTC-1, seven of which have been previously reported by other catalogues.