[Donald piniach]

Donald piniach asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Does a black hole interact with the passage of a gravity wave?  Any chance of an interference pattern?
What do you think?

[Mike Gale]

Absolutely. Gravity waves would be subject to the same distortions as light waves. The problem is that they are diabolically hard to detect and we don't have the technology to triangulate them yet.

[chris]

Absolutely. Gravity waves would be subject to the same distortions as light waves. The problem is that they are diabolically hard to detect and we don't have the technology to triangulate them yet.

...although, there will be a number of new gravitational wave detector facilities coming online soon, which will provide a much higher resolution for detection of the waves' origins.

Dare I say it... watch this space!

[evan_au]

Do black holes affect gravity wave propagation?

An isolated black hole does not generate gravitational waves. You need two closely orbiting black holes or neutron stars to generate enough gravitational waves to be detected by today's gravitational wave detectors.

An isolated black hole could presumably absorb some of the gravitational wave energy impinging on its event horizon. However, the gravitational waves reported in 2016 had a wavelength varying between  750 and 6,000,000 km. And a black hole perhaps 10km across will not absorb much energy from a wavelength of 100 km or greater.

I expect a gravitational wave will displace a black hole by a small amount, and then put it back where it started. It might distort the event horizon slightly.