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Gravitational lensing is a phenomenon where intervening objects bend and magnify light, first predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity in 1915. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the first observational evidence of gravitational lensing was discovered. Since then, scientists have made great strides in studying this phenomenon, which provides a unique way to […]

Title: Lensing or luck? False alarm probabilities for gravitational lensing of gravitational wavesLink: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.04619 (accepted to MNRAS) Gravitational lensing is a fascinating phenomenon in which light from a distant object is bent and magnified by the gravity of an intervening massive object, allowing us to study objects that would otherwise be too faint or too […]

Could any of the gravitational wave signals observed in the LVC observing run O3a be lensed by massive astrophysical objects, such as galaxies, galaxy clusters, black holes, or stars? Like electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed. While the lensing of electromagnetic waves has had a rich observational history, we are still taking the […]

Published in the Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society. Like electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed by intervening objects, such as stars, black holes, galaxies, and galaxy clusters. However, while the theory behind the lensing of gravitational waves is similar to that of light lensing, the methods to detect it are entirely different […]

As the current ground-based gravitational-wave detectors are upgraded and more detectors come online, we expect to access new scientific avenues. One such avenue is observations of gravitational-wave lensing, with recent forecasts predicting detections in the coming years. Before the first detection, it is essential to investigate, outline, and build upon the various science cases of […]

We discuss the prospects for constraining dark matter models with an EMRI-based dark matter spike measurement. In particular, many of the standard dark matter models predict the destruction or smoothening of the dark matter spike. That is, these dark matter models could not produce a dark matter spike detection through an EMRI. We turn the […]

In this work, we demonstrate a smoking-gun method to detect lensed gravitational waves from binary neutron stars through a measurement of their “tidal effects.” When a gravitational wave is lensed, it can undergo magnification. Usually, identifying lensing magnification from gravitational waves is not possible because it only introduces an overall shift in the gravitational wave’s […]

General relativity postulates that massive objects curve space and time. Gravitational lensing occurs when these objects distort or bend light curves. Similarly to light, gravitational waves can be gravitationally lensed. However, unlike in lensing of light where one detects particles, in gravitational-wave lensing we detect waves. Consequently, methods to detect and utilize gravitational-wave lensing are […]

Published in Nature Astronomy Letters (2019). See also accompanied blog-post. An ultralight bosonic cloud around a massive black hole orbited by a small compact object emitting gravitational waves. Artistic illustration by Antonio Mati. Astroparticle physics, a field that has boomed since the 2000s, aims to learn about elementary particles through astrophysical observations. One focus of […]