In the quest to explore the distant Universe, gravity’s universal nature provides crucial aid, as any clump of matter may act as a giant lens to magnify the radiation emitted by otherwise too-faint objects. Thanks to the gravitational lensing of electromagnetic waves, we have mapped the elusive dark matter, found the furthest galaxies, and even discovered exoplanets.
Gravitational waves are the next frontier in gravitational lensing. Because of their well-understood waveforms and large wavelengths, they hold unique discovery potential to test gravity in the uncharted wave-optics regime, probe the dark matter substructure and find new populations of black holes in the early Universe. In this talk, after introducing the basics of gravitational-wave lensing, I will present a status report of current searches, including repeated chirps of strongly lensed sources, and distorted signals by small compact lenses. I will then focus on the challenges and opportunities associated with the first detection of gravitational wave lensing.