1994/05/10 by J. Frieman, D. Harari, Diego Harari +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.50.4895
published as Phys.Rev.D50:4895-4902,1994 · 22 pages in REVTEX 3.0 (previous versions may not have TeXed due to Unix mailer problems)
arxiv created 1994/05/10 · openalex publication_date 1994/10/15 · arxiv updated 2011/09/09 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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 a different alignment between source, deflector, and observer in the absence of gravity waves. Contrary to a recent claim, we conclude that measurements of time delays in gravitational lenses cannot serve as a method to detect or constrain a stochastic background of gravitational waves of cosmological wavelengths, because the wave-induced time delay is observationally indistinguishable from an intrinsic time delay due to the lens geometry.