Semi-classical imprints on quasinormal mode spectra

TL;DR

This paper investigates how semi-classical modifications to black hole metrics influence quasinormal mode spectra, revealing potential signatures of non-classical horizons and deviations from Schwarzschild black holes.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-classical black hole model with a constrained metric near the horizon and computes quasinormal modes, highlighting deviations from classical solutions.

Findings

Constraints on deviations from Schwarzschild black holes

Potential to mimic axially-symmetric signatures

Insights into semi-classical horizon structures

Abstract

We compute quasinormal mode frequencies for static limits of physical black holes - semi-classical black hole solutions to Einstein-Hilbert gravity characterized by the finite formation time of an apparent horizon and its weak regularity. These assumptions lead to a highly constrained yet non-trivial form of the metric and components of the energy-momentum tensor near the horizon, which contain as a special case many known models of black holes. Using a two-point M-fraction approximation to construct an interpolating metric which captures the essential near-horizon and asymptotic properties of black holes, we explore a large part of the parameter space that characterizes the near-horizon geometry. We cast the perturbation problem as a discretized homogeneous eigensystem and compute the low-lying quasinormal mode frequencies for perturbations of a massless scalar field. Working in spherical symmetry, we provide rough constraints on leading and subleading deviations from the Schwarzschild solution which arise in a semi-classical setting, and demonstrate the potential for mimicking signatures of axially-symmetric geometries from a spherically-symmetric source.