Light rays, gravitational waves and pulse-time offsets

Gravitational lens time delays and gravitational waves.

Using Fermat’s principle, we analyze the effects of very long wavelength gravitational waves upon the images of a gravitationally lensed quasar. We show that the lens equation in the presence of gravity waves is equivalent to that of a lens with different alignment between source, deflector, and observer in the absence of gravity waves. Contrary to a recent claim, we conclude that measurements ...

Gravitational Waves and Light Cosmic Strings

Gravitational wave signatures from cosmic strings are analyzed numerically. Cosmic string networks form during phase transistions in the early universe and these networks of long cosmic strings break into loops that radiate energy in the form of gravitational waves until they decay. The gravitational waves come in the form of harmonic modes from individual string loops, a “confusion noise” from...

If light waves are stretched by gravitational waves, how can we use light as a ruler to detect gravitational waves?

Time-frequency detection of gravitational waves

We present a time-frequency method to detect gravitational wave signals in interferometric data. This robust method can detect signals from poorly modeled and unmodeled sources. We evaluate the method on simulated data containing noise and signal components. The noise component approximates initial Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory ~LIGO! interferometer noise. The signal comp...

Rays , Waves and Asymptotics