Echoes from the black holes: Evidence of higher order corrections to General Relativity in strong gravity regime

TL;DR

This paper presents evidence that higher order curvature corrections to general relativity can produce observable gravitational wave echoes in the strong gravity regime near black hole horizons, explaining recent LIGO data without exotic horizon structures.

Contribution

It demonstrates that higher order curvature corrections can generate gravitational wave echoes, providing a new explanation consistent with observed ringdown modes.

Findings

Higher order curvature corrections produce oscillating Ricci scalar fireballs.

These corrections generate ringdown modes matching observed gravitational wave echoes.

The model explains LIGO observations without exotic horizon structures.

Abstract

We show that the higher order curvature corrections to general relativity in the strong gravity regime of near horizon scales produce a rapidly oscillating and infalling Ricci scalar fireball just outside the horizon. This can generate the ringdown modes of gravitational waves having the same natural frequency as those which are generated by the black hole mergers. Our analysis provides a viable explanation to the echoes in the ringdown modes recently detected from the LIGO data, without invoking the existence of any exotic structures at the horizon.