Description
When gravitational waves travel from their source to an observer, they interact
with matter structures along their path, causing distinct deformations in their waveforms. In
this study we introduce a novel theoretical framework for wave optics effects in gravitational
lensing, addressing the limitations of existing approaches. We achieve this by incorporating
the proper time technique, typically used in field theory studies, into gravitational lensing.
This approach allows us to extend the standard formalism beyond the eikonal and paraxial
approximations, which are traditionally assumed, and to account for polarization effects,
which are typically neglected in the literature. We demonstrate that our method provides
a robust generalization of conventional approaches, including them as special cases. Our
findings enhance our understanding of gravitational wave propagation, which is crucial for
accurately interpreting gravitational wave observations and extracting unbiased information
about the lenses from the gravitational wave waveforms.
