Can Einstein (rings) surf Gravitational Waves?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Giani, Leonardo, Howlett, Cullan, Davis, Tamara M.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Giani, Leonardo
Howlett, Cullan
Davis, Tamara M.
author_facet Giani, Leonardo
Howlett, Cullan
Davis, Tamara M.
contents How does the appearance of a strongly lensed system change if a gravitational wave is produced by the lens? In this work we address this question by considering a supermassive black hole binary at the center of the lens emitting gravitational waves propagating either colinearly or orthogonally to the line of sight. Specializing to an Einstein ring configuration (where the source, the lens and the observer are aligned), we show that the gravitational wave induces changes on the ring's angular size and on the optical path of photons. The changes are the same for a given pair of antipodal points on the ring, but maximally different for any pair separated by $90^{\circ}$. For realistic lenses and binaries, we find that the change in the angular size of the Einstein ring is dozens of orders of magnitude smaller than the precision of current experiments. On the other hand, the difference in the optical path induced on a photon by a gravitational wave propagating \textit{orthogonally} to the line of sight triggers, at peak strain, time delays in the range $\sim 0.01 - 1$ seconds, making the chance of their detection (and thus the use of Einstein rings as gravitational wave detectors) less hopeless.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_10472
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can Einstein (rings) surf Gravitational Waves?
Giani, Leonardo
Howlett, Cullan
Davis, Tamara M.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
How does the appearance of a strongly lensed system change if a gravitational wave is produced by the lens? In this work we address this question by considering a supermassive black hole binary at the center of the lens emitting gravitational waves propagating either colinearly or orthogonally to the line of sight. Specializing to an Einstein ring configuration (where the source, the lens and the observer are aligned), we show that the gravitational wave induces changes on the ring's angular size and on the optical path of photons. The changes are the same for a given pair of antipodal points on the ring, but maximally different for any pair separated by $90^{\circ}$. For realistic lenses and binaries, we find that the change in the angular size of the Einstein ring is dozens of orders of magnitude smaller than the precision of current experiments. On the other hand, the difference in the optical path induced on a photon by a gravitational wave propagating \textit{orthogonally} to the line of sight triggers, at peak strain, time delays in the range $\sim 0.01 - 1$ seconds, making the chance of their detection (and thus the use of Einstein rings as gravitational wave detectors) less hopeless.
title Can Einstein (rings) surf Gravitational Waves?
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.10472