Gravitational lensing by gravitational wave pulse

Abstract

Gravitational lensing by gravitational wave is considered. We have found that although final and initial directions of photons after passing through the gravitational wave pulse coincide, the gravitational wave changes the photon propagation, simply shifting its whole trajectory. This displacement in the trajectory is found analytically for the photon passing through the plane gravitational wave pulse. On the basis of this result we obtain an approximate formula for the estimation of observational effects.