Quasinormal modes of hairy black holes in shift-symmetric theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates how additional shift-symmetric terms in scalar-tensor theories influence the quasinormal modes of hairy black holes, which could impact gravitational wave observations and tests of gravity.

Contribution

It analyzes the effects of various shift-symmetric Lagrangian terms on the axial and polar quasinormal modes of hairy black holes in scalar-tensor theories.

Findings

Additional shift-symmetric terms significantly alter QNM spectra.

The impact varies between axial and polar modes.

Results suggest potential observational signatures in gravitational wave data.

Abstract

Alternative theories of gravity may be put to the test by making use of gravitational wave observations. Scalar-tensor theories provide a relatively simple framework that allows for compact object solutions with characteristics different from those of their general relativity counterparts. In shift-symmetric theories, black hole hair may arise when a linear coupling with the Gauss-Bonnet (GB) invariant is introduced. The effect of this coupling on the black hole quasinormal modes (QNMs) has been shown to be small, therefore limiting the observational interest in the theory. In general, however, one expects that additional shift-symmetric terms in the Lagrangian may be relevant, and indeed, it has been shown that they can have a nontrivial impact on the mass and scalar charge of the stationary solutions. In this work we explore the effect that various such terms have on the axial and polar QNMs of the hairy black hole solutions.