Lensing effects on gravitational waves from compact binaries

Abstract

Compact binary systems, such as black holes or neutron stars, are known to emit gravitational waves as a result of energy loss while orbiting around their common center of mass. Ground-based detectors like LIGO and VIRGO have been able to detect such radiation as a "chirp" signal in the range of frequencies emitted by these compact systems. It is known that gravitational waves can experience gravitational lensing as they travel from the binary system to the observer and pass near massive objects on their way. This produces a distortion which could be encoded in the signal we detect. In this work we analyse wave effects on gravitational lensing of gravitational waves (like interference and diffraction) which are of possible importance in future detections by ground-based and/or space detectors