Results on the spectrum of R-Modes of slowly rotating relativistic stars

The paper considers the spectrum of axial perturbations of slowly uniformly rotating general relativistic stars in the framework of Y. Kojima. In a first step towards a full analysis only the evolution equations are treated but not the constraint. Then it is found that the system is unstable due to a continuum of non real eigenvalues. In addition the resolvent of the associated generator of time evolution is found to have a special structure which was discussed in a previous paper. From this structure it follows the occurrence of a continuous part in the spectrum of oscillations at least if the system is restricted to a finite space as is done in most numerical investigations. Finally, it can be seen that higher order corrections in the rotation frequency can qualitatively influence the spectrum of the oscillations. As a consequence different descriptions of the star which are equivalent to first order could lead to different results with respect to the stability of the star

On the Completeness of the Quasinormal Modes of the Poeschl-Teller Potential

The completeness of the quasinormal modes of the wave equation with Poeschl-Teller potential is investigated. A main result is that after a large enough time $t_0$, the solutions of this equation corresponding to $C^{\infty}$-data with compact support can be expanded uniformly in time with respect to the quasinormal modes, thereby leading to absolutely convergent series. Explicit estimates for $t_0$ depending on both the support of the data and the point of observation are given. For the particular case of an ``early'' time and zero distance between the support of the data and observational point, it is shown that the corresponding series is not absolutely convergent, and hence that there is no associated sum which is independent of the order of summation.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Comm. Math. Phy

On a new symmetry of the solutions of the wave equation in the background of a Kerr black hole

This short paper derives the constant of motion of a scalar field in the gravitational field of a Kerr black hole which is associated to a Killing tensor of that space-time. In addition, there is found a related new symmetry operator S for the solutions of the wave equation in that background. That operator is a partial differential operator with a leading order time derivative of the first order that commutes with a normal form of the wave operator. That form is obtained by multiplication of the wave operator from the left with the reciprocal of the coefficient function of its second order time derivative. It is shown that S induces an operator that commutes with the generator of time evolution in a formulation of the initial value problem for the wave equation in the setting of strongly continuous semigroups

A framework for perturbations and stability of differentially rotating stars

The paper provides a new framework for the description of linearized adiabatic lagrangian perturbations and stability of differentially rotating newtonian stars. In doing so it overcomes problems in a previous framework by Dyson and Schutz and provides the basis of a rigorous analysis of the stability of such stars. For this the governing equation of the oscillations is written as a first order system in time. From that system the generator of time evolution is read off and a Hilbert space is given where it generates a strongly continuous group. As a consequence the governing equation has a well-posed initial value problem. The spectrum of the generator relevant for stability considerations is shown to be equal to the spectrum of an operator polynomial whose coefficients can be read off from the governing equation. Finally, we give for the first time sufficient criteria for stability in the form of inequalities for the coefficients of the polynomial. These show that a negative canonical energy of the star does not necessarily indicate instability. It is still unclear whether these criteria are strong enough to prove stability for realistic stars

On the stability of the Kerr metric

The reduced (in the angular coordinate $\phi$) wave equation and Klein-Gordon equation are considered on a Kerr background and in the framework of $C^{0}$-semigroup theory. Each equation is shown to have a well-posed initial value problem,i.e., to have a unique solution depending continuously on the data. Further, it is shown that the spectrum of the semigroup's generator coincides with the spectrum of an operator polynomial whose coefficients can be read off from the equation. In this way the problem of deciding stability is reduced to a spectral problem and a mathematical basis is provided for mode considerations. For the wave equation it is shown that the resolvent of the semigroup's generator and the corresponding Green's functions can be computed using spheroidal functions. It is to be expected that, analogous to the case of a Schwarzschild background, the quasinormal frequencies of the Kerr black hole appear as {\it resonances}, i.e., poles of the analytic continuation of this resolvent. Finally, stability of the background with respect to reduced massive perturbations is proven for large enough masses

A new result on the Klein-Gordon equation in the background of a rotating black hole

This short paper should serve as basis for further analysis of a previously found new symmetry of the solutions of the wave equation in the gravitational field of a Kerr black hole. Its main new result is the proof of essential self-adjointness of the spatial part of a reduced normalized wave operator of the Kerr metric in a weighted L^2-space. As a consequence, it leads to a purely operator theoretic proof of the well-posedness of the initial value problem of the reduced Klein-Gordon equation in that field in that L^2-space and in this way generalizes a corresponding result of Kay (1985) in the case of the Schwarzschild black hole. It is believed that the employed methods are applicable to other separable wave equations