Cosmological waveguides for gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates how large-scale cosmic structures like galaxy filaments can act as waveguides for gravitational waves, potentially amplifying signals and aiding detection.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework showing that cosmic filaments can trap and magnify gravitational waves, enhancing detection prospects.

Findings

Dust behaves as a non-dispersive, non-dissipative medium in gravitational wave propagation.

Galaxy filaments can act as gravitational waveguides, trapping and magnifying signals.

Potential for significant amplification of gravitational waves from distant sources.

Abstract

We study the linearized equations describing the propagation of gravitational waves through dust. In the leading order of the WKB approximation, dust behaves as a non-dispersive, non-dissipative medium. Taking advantage of these features, we explore the possibility that a gravitational wave from a distant source gets trapped by the gravitational field of a long filament of galaxies of the kind seen in the large scale structure of the Universe. Such a waveguiding effect may lead to a huge magnification of the radiation from distant sources, thus lowering the sensitivity required for a successful detection of gravitational waves by detectors like VIRGO, LIGO and LISA.