It is believed that the relativistic jets of gamma-ray bursts ( GRBs ) should initially propagate through a heavy envelope of the massive progenitor stars or through a merger ejecta formed from the compact binary mergers .
The interaction of a jet with a stellar envelope or a merger ejecta can lead to the deceleration of the head material of the jet and , simultaneously , the formation of a hot cocoon .
However , this jet-envelope/ejecta interaction is actually undetectable with electromagnetic radiation and can only be inferred indirectly by the structure of the breakout jet .
Therefore , as a way out of this difficulty , it is suggested that the jet-envelope/ejecta interaction can produce a gravitational wave memory of an amplitude of h \sim 10 ^ { -27 } -10 ^ { -24 } , which could be detected with some future gravitational wave detectors sensitive in the frequency range of f \sim 0.1 - 1 Hz .
This provides a potential direct way to probe the jet propagation and then the interior of the GRB progenitors .
Moreover , this method is in principle available even if the jet is finally chocked in the stellar envelope or the merger ejecta .