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Yes. In general relativity, a passing gravitational wave can leave a lasting change in the relative positions of freely falling masses. This is called gravitational-wave memory: a residual offset in spacetime geometry, not a permanent visible scar on ordinary objects. The predicted strain is tiny—typically around 10-23, according to a LIGO Laboratory technical note.
What gravitational-wave memory means
A gravitational wave usually produces a transient pattern of stretching and squeezing as it passes. After the wave has gone, the relative separation of ideal, freely falling test masses can settle at a slightly different value than before. That leftover difference is the memory effect.
The change is in the relationship between the masses, not a lasting deformation that people could see in nearby objects. LIGO Laboratory describes the typical memory strain as being on the order of 10-23 in its technical note, Detectability of Nonlinear Gravitational Wave Memory (document T2000350-v21).
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| Feature | Oscillatory gravitational-wave signal | Memory contribution |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | Produces changing, alternating stretching and squeezing while the signal passes. | Leaves a residual change in relative separation after the signal has passed. |
| Signal shape | Transient and oscillatory. | Non-oscillatory offset; nonlinear memory accumulates. |
| What it describes | Changing separation during the wave. | A lasting difference in the configuration of freely falling test masses. |
The residual-displacement description is also used in the 2016 paper Detecting Gravitational-Wave Memory with LIGO: Implications of GW150914.
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Linear and nonlinear memory have different sources
Linear memory
Linear memory can arise from non-oscillating flows of mass-energy associated with a source. It is one way a gravitational event can produce a lasting change rather than only an oscillating signal.
Nonlinear memory
Nonlinear memory is sourced by energy carried by gravitational waves themselves. Its contribution builds cumulatively and is non-oscillatory. The two forms share the broad idea of a residual effect, but they do not have the same source mechanism.
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Has gravitational-wave memory been detected?
A predicted effect is not the same as an observed and isolated signal. LIGO Laboratory’s T2000350-v21 technical note says that, at the time of that document, current detectors had not reliably detected and isolated the nonlinear memory component. The note describes the challenge as a very weak, low-frequency signal. That statement is specific to the document’s status and should not be read as a timeless claim about every form of memory.
Detection is a specialized signal-analysis problem. Ground-based interferometers infer strain by measuring changes in laser-light interference after light travels along perpendicular, kilometer-scale arms. LIGO’s guide to detector noise and transient-signal extraction explains the measurement approach and links to public data and analysis tutorials. A household instrument cannot verify this effect.
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What future detector studies project
A 2023 study by Alexander M. Grant and David A. Nichols examined displacement and spin memory. Its projections depend on detector sensitivity, observing time, and the kind of memory being sought; they are not reports of detections.
- For a second-generation LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA network operating at the study’s specified O4 and O5 sensitivities, the authors projected that displacement memory could be detected.
- For Cosmic Explorer, the study projected displacement-memory detection in loud individual events and spin-memory detection in a population after five years of observing.
These are conditional forecasts, not a guaranteed timetable. The paper is Outlook for detecting the gravitational-wave displacement and spin memory effects with current and future gravitational-wave detectors, published in Physical Review D on March 27, 2023.
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