Black hole perturbations in spatially covariant gravity with just two tensorial degrees of freedom

TL;DR

This paper investigates linear perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole in a specific class of spatially covariant gravity theories, revealing that odd-parity modes behave as in general relativity while even-parity modes are altered, leading to insights on black hole stability and uniqueness.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of black hole perturbations in spatially covariant gravity with only two tensorial degrees of freedom, highlighting differences from general relativity.

Findings

Odd-parity perturbations propagate at light speed as in GR.

Even-parity perturbations involve mixing with an instantaneous scalar mode.

No regular solutions for monopole and dipole perturbations, indicating black hole uniqueness.

Abstract

We study linear perturbations around a static and spherically symmetric black hole solution in spatially covariant gravity with just two tensorial degrees of freedom. In this theory, gravity modification is characterized by a single time-dependent function that appears in the coefficient of $K^2$ in the action, where $K$ is the trace of the extrinsic curvature. The background black hole solution is given by the Schwarzschild solution foliated by the maximal slices and has a universal horizon at which the lapse function vanishes. We show that the quadratic action for the odd-parity perturbations is identical to that in general relativity upon performing an appropriate coordinate transformation. This in particular implies that the odd-parity perturbations propagate at the speed of light, with the inner boundary being the usual event horizon. We also derive the quadratic action for even-parity perturbations. In the even-parity sector, one of the two tensorial degrees of freedom is mixed with an instantaneous scalar mode, rendering the system distinct from that in general relativity. We find that monopole and dipole perturbations, which are composed solely of the instantaneous scalar mode, have no solutions regular both at the universal horizon and infinity (except for the trivial one corresponding to the constant shift of the mass parameter). We also consider stationary perturbations with higher multipoles. By carefully treating the locations of the inner boundary, we show that also in this case there are no solutions regular both at the inner boundary and infinity. Thus, the black hole solution we consider is shown to be perturbatively unique.