Spin wave optics for gravitational waves lensed by a Kerr black hole
Abstract
Gravitational waves exhibit the unique signature of their spin-2 nature in processes of wave scattering, due to the interaction between spin and a background spacetime. Since the spin effect is more pronounced for longer wavelengths and gravitational waves sourced by binaries have a long wavelength, it may become an important effect in addition to the wave effect. We study the propagation of gravitational waves lensed by a Kerr black hole by numerically solving the Teukolsky equation with a source term of the equal-mass circular binary, taking into account both spin effect and wave effect. We find helicity-dependent small-period oscillation in the power spectrum of the amplification factor in the forward direction and the oscillation is enhanced as spin of a prograde Kerr black hole increases.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2408.03289,
title = {Spin wave optics for gravitational waves lensed by a Kerr black hole},
author = {Kei-ichiro Kubota and Shun Arai and Hayato Motohashi and Shinji Mukohyama},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.03289},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
19 pages, 16 figures. PRD accepted