Unstable Chords and Destructive Resonant Excitation of Black Hole Quasinormal Modes

The quasinormal mode spectrum of black holes is unstable against small modifications of the radial potential describing massless perturbations. We study how these small modifications affect the convergence of the quasinormal mode expansion and the mode excitation by computing the mode amplitudes from first principles, without relying on any fitting procedure. We show that the decomposition of the prompt ringdown waveform is not unique: small modifications in the radial potential produce new quasinormal mode "basis sets" that can improve the convergence of the quasinormal mode expansion, even capturing the late-time tail. We also study avoided crossings and exceptional points of the Kerr and Kerr-de Sitter spectrum. We show that while the mode amplitude can be resonantly excited, modes that exhibit avoided crossing destructively interfere with each other, so that the prompt ringdown waveform remains stable.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Physical Review Letters
Published
2025-06-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/ht2n-vvvh
Citations
10
Primary Topic
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
11.55

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Unstable Chords and Destructive Resonant Excitation of Black Hole Quasinormal Modes

Vítor Cardoso, Naritaka Oshita, Emanuele Berti
10 citations
Physical Review Letters
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
11.55
article

Unstable Chords and Destructive Resonant Excitation of Black Hole Quasinormal Modes

Vítor Cardoso, Naritaka Oshita, Emanuele Berti
article en
10 citations

Abstract

The quasinormal mode spectrum of black holes is unstable against small modifications of the radial potential describing massless perturbations. We study how these small modifications affect the convergence of the quasinormal mode expansion and the mode excitation by computing the mode amplitudes from first principles, without relying on any fitting procedure. We show that the decomposition of the prompt ringdown waveform is not unique: small modifications in the radial potential produce new quasinormal mode "basis sets" that can improve the convergence of the quasinormal mode expansion, even capturing the late-time tail. We also study avoided crossings and exceptional points of the Kerr and Kerr-de Sitter spectrum. We show that while the mode amplitude can be resonantly excited, modes that exhibit avoided crossing destructively interfere with each other, so that the prompt ringdown waveform remains stable.

Physical Review LettersVol. 135(3)
University of Lisbon (PT), Johns Hopkins University (US), Kyoto University (JP), Instituto de Física Teórica (ES), RIKEN Nishina Center (JP), Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (JP)
National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Simons Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, Villum Fonden, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Kyoto University, Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, H2020 European Research Council, H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
11.55
DOISourceOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.