Absorption of Gravitational Waves from Distant Sources

Understand

The rate of gravitational wave absorption by inverse bremsstrahlung is calculated.

• It increases with decreasing frequency $\nu$ as $\nu^{-3}$.
• Nevertheless, because of the near cancellation of absorption by stimulated emission, the ionized gas in galaxy clusters does not block gravitational waves at the nanohertz frequencies that may be detected by the use of pulsar timing observations.