We study the excitation of axial quasi-normal modes of deformed non-rotating
black holes by test-particles and we compare the associated gravitational wave
signal with that expected in general relativity from a Schwarzschild black
hole. Deviations from standard predictions are quantified by an effective
deformation parameter, which takes into account deviations from both the
Schwarzschild metric and the Einstein equations. We show that, at least in the
case of non-rotating black holes, it is possible to test the metric around the
compact object, in the sense that the measurement of the gravitational wave
spectrum can constrain possible deviations from the Schwarzschild solution.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure