Quasi-normal modes and echoes of generalized black hole bounces and their correspondence with shadows

TL;DR

This paper investigates the quasi-normal modes and echoes of generalized black bounce spacetimes, revealing how their features relate to shadows and photon rings, with implications for gravitational wave signals and black hole imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a unified analysis of QNMs and echoes in generalized black bounces, linking gravitational wave features with optical shadow characteristics.

Findings

Larger QNM frequencies as parameter a increases

Echoes occur in parameter ranges without horizons but with photon spheres

Features of echoes correlate with photon rings and shadows

Abstract

We study the quasi-normal modes (QNMs) of a family of generalized black bounces interpolating between regular black holes and traversable wormhole solutions according to a single extra parameter $a$. Firstly, working with a generic spherically symmetric space-time with arbitrary radial function and an anisotropic fluid matter source, the general equations for the gravitational waves are obtained. Then, we focus on such particular space-time metric and use the time-domain method to find the evolution of the QNMs with respect to the parameter $a$, finding larger frequencies and damped modes as $a$ grows. Furthermore we find that, for a gap in the values of $a$ for which no horizon is present but several photon spheres are, echoes are produced. Such echoes, which come from trapped modes in the potential well that are eventually leaked off for higher frequencies, appear as repetitions of the original wave but with modulated amplitude and decreased frequencies, and study their evolution with $a$. In addition, at the light of the correspondence recently discussed in the literature between QNMs and black hole imaging, we discuss the relation of the features of such echoes with those features (photon rings and shadows) of optical images from thin accretion disks. Despite working with simplified models and settings, our analysis provides useful insights on the usefulness of the correspondence for both gravitational waves and shadows.