(In)stability of D-dimensional black holes in Gauss-Bonnet theory

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of higher-dimensional black holes in Gauss-Bonnet gravity, revealing instabilities at certain parameters and showing stability at higher dimensions through gravitational perturbation analysis.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of gravitational perturbations in D-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet black holes, identifying conditions for stability and instability across dimensions.

Findings

Instability at higher multipoles and large coupling in D=5,6

Stability at higher D despite potential gaps

No instability from negative potential gaps in higher D

Abstract

We make an extensive study of evolution of gravitational perturbations of D-dimensional black holes in Gauss-Bonnet theory. There is an instability at higher multi-poles $\ell$ and large Gauss-Bonnet coupling $\alpha$ for $D= 5, 6$, which is stabilized at higher $D$. Although small negative gap of the effective potential for scalar type of gravitational perturbations, exists for higher $D$ and whatever $\alpha$, it does not lead to any instability.