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Updated: May 9, 2025

The Generation of Higher-order Laguerre-Gauss Optical Beams for High-precision Interferometry
Published on: August 12, 2013
Gravitational-wave lensing detection
1Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Fo Tan, Hong Kong.
Abstract:
General relativity (GW) postulates that gravitational waves, like light, can be gravitationally lensed by intervening massive astrophysical objects, such as galaxies, black holes and stars. The gravitational lensing effect could magnify, split or distort the original waves. Motivated by the Manchester Multimessenger lensing conference discussion, I introduce an overview of these lensing signatures and briefly discuss strategies for detecting them, focusing on compact binary merger sources and the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA detector network. This discussion is qualitative rather than quantitative, aimed at helping non-experts understand the general strategies used to detect gravitational-wave lensing. We refer to the numerous publications on the topic for the technical details.This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Multi-messenger gravitational lensing (Part 2)'.
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