Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. III: Probing the
  expansion of the Universe using gravitational wave standard sirens
  We investigate the capability of various configurations of the space
interferometer eLISA to probe the late-time background expansion of the
universe using gravitational wave standard sirens. We simulate catalogues of
standard sirens composed by massive black hole binaries whose gravitational
radiation is detectable by eLISA, and which are likely to produce an
electromagnetic counterpart observable by future surveys. The main issue for
the identification of a counterpart resides in the capability of obtaining an
accurate enough sky localisation with eLISA. This seriously challenges the
capability of four-link (2 arm) configurations to successfully constrain the
cosmological parameters. Conversely, six-link (3 arm) configurations have the
potential to provide a test of the expansion of the universe up to $z\sim 8$
which is complementary to other cosmological probes based on electromagnetic
observations only. In particular, in the most favourable scenarios, they can
provide a significant constraint on $H_0$ at the level of 0.5%. Furthermore,
$(\Omega_M, \Omega_\Lambda)$ can be constrained to a level competitive with
present SNIa results. On the other hand, the lack of massive black hole binary
standard sirens at low redshift allows to constrain dark energy only at the
level of few percent.
