Detectability of microlensed gravitational waves

Understand

Gravitational lensing describes the bending of the trajectories of light and gravitational waves due to the gravitational potential of a massive object.

• Strong lensing by galaxies can create multiple images with different overall amplifications, arrival times, and image types.
• If, furthermore, the gravitational wave encounters a star along its trajectory, microlensing will take place.
• Previously, it has been shown that the effects of microlenses on strongly-lensed type-I images could be negligible in practice, at least in the low magnification regime.