23 research outputs found

    Generic master equations for quasi-normal frequencies

    Full text link
    Generic master equations governing the highly-damped quasi-normal frequencies [QNFs] of one-horizon, two-horizon, and even three-horizon spacetimes can be obtained through either semi-analytic or monodromy techniques. While many technical details differ, both between the semi-analytic and monodromy approaches, and quite often among various authors seeking to apply the monodromy technique, there is nevertheless widespread agreement regarding the the general form of the QNF master equations. Within this class of generic master equations we can establish some rather general results, relating the existence of "families" of QNFs of the form omega_{a,n} = (offset)_a + i n (gap) to the question of whether or not certain ratios of parameters are rational or irrational.Comment: 23 pages; V2: Minor additions, typos fixed. Matches published versio

    Semi-analytic results for quasi-normal frequencies

    Full text link
    The last decade has seen considerable interest in the quasi-normal frequencies [QNFs] of black holes (and even wormholes), both asymptotically flat and with cosmological horizons. There is wide agreement that the QNFs are often of the form omega_n = (offset) + i n (gap), though some authors have encountered situations where this behaviour seems to fail. To get a better understanding of the general situation we consider a semi-analytic model based on a piecewise Eckart (Poeschl-Teller) potential, allowing for different heights and different rates of exponential falloff in the two asymptotic directions. This model is sufficiently general to capture and display key features of the black hole QNFs while simultaneously being analytically tractable, at least for asymptotically large imaginary parts of the QNFs. We shall derive an appropriate "quantization condition" for the asymptotic QNFs, and extract as much analytic information as possible. In particular, we shall explicitly verify that the (offset)+ i n (gap) behaviour is common but not universal, with this behaviour failing unless the ratio of rates of exponential falloff on the two sides of the potential is a rational number. (This is "common but not universal" in the sense that the rational numbers are dense in the reals.) We argue that this behaviour is likely to persist for black holes with cosmological horizons.Comment: V1: 28 pages, no figures. V2: 3 references added, no physics changes. V3: 29 pages, 9 references added, no physics changes; V4: reformatted, now 27 pages. Some clarifications, comparison with results obtained by monodromy techniques. This version accepted for publication in JHEP. V5: Minor typos fixed. Compatible with published versio

    A scalar field condensation instability of rotating anti-de Sitter black holes

    Full text link
    Near-extreme Reissner-Nordstrom-anti-de Sitter black holes are unstable against the condensation of an uncharged scalar field with mass close to the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. It is shown that a similar instability afflicts near-extreme large rotating AdS black holes, and near-extreme hyperbolic Schwarzschild-AdS black holes. The resulting nonlinear hairy black hole solutions are determined numerically. Some stability results for (possibly charged) scalar fields in black hole backgrounds are proved. For most of the extreme black holes we consider, these demonstrate stability if the ``effective mass" respects the near-horizon BF bound. Small spherical Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes are an interesting exception to this result.Comment: 34 pages; 13 figure
    corecore