PIRSA:25110122

Diffractive Lensing of Gravitational Waves as a New Probe of Dark Matter

Çalışkan, M. (2025). Diffractive Lensing of Gravitational Waves as a New Probe of Dark Matter. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/25110122

Çalışkan, Mesut. Diffractive Lensing of Gravitational Waves as a New Probe of Dark Matter. Perimeter Institute, Nov. 27, 2025, https://pirsa.org/25110122 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:25110122,
            doi = {10.48660/25110122},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/25110122},
            author = {{\c C}al{\i}{\c s}kan, Mesut},
            keywords = {Strong Gravity},
            language = {en},
            title = {Diffractive Lensing of Gravitational Waves as a New Probe of Dark Matter},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2025},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:25110122 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Mesut Çalışkan Johns Hopkins University - Department of Physics & Astronomy

Talk numberPIRSA:25110122
DOI10.48660/25110122
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

Lensed gravitational waves (GWs) offer a promising new probe of dark matter. Dark matter subhalos can lens GWs from stellar-mass or massive black hole binaries, producing diffractive (wave-optics) lensing signatures in their chirping waveforms.
 
I will begin by highlighting how GW lensing differs from the lensing of light, particularly in its sensitivity to small-scale structure through frequency-dependent diffraction patterns. I will then discuss how these diffractive features encode the mass and density profile of dark matter subhalos, and how the rate of such events can inform their abundance. I will assess the detection prospects for current and upcoming GW detectors, and conclude by outlining key theoretical and computational challenges that must be addressed to advance this emerging probe.