Radiative Tail of Realistic Rotating Gravitational Collapse

TL;DR

This paper investigates wave decay in rotating Kerr black holes, revealing that they shed 'hair' more slowly than Schwarzschild black holes and that late-time tails depend on the field type, challenging previous universality assumptions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that rotating Kerr black holes decay differently than Schwarzschild black holes and that late-time tails are field-dependent, challenging longstanding beliefs.

Findings

Kerr black holes become 'bald' slower than Schwarzschild black holes.

Different fields exhibit different decay rates at late times.

Results impact the understanding of black hole stability and the no-hair conjecture.

Abstract

An astrophysically realistic model of wave dynamics in black-hole spacetimes must involve a non-spherical background geometry with angular momentum. We consider the evolution of gravitational (and electromagnetic) perturbations in rotating Kerr spacetimes. We show that a rotating Kerr black hole becomes `bald' slower than the corresponding spherically-symmetric Schwarzschild black hole. Moreover, our results turn over the traditional belief (which has been widely accepted during the last three decades) that the late-time tail of gravitational collapse is universal. In particular, we show that different fields have different decaying rates. Our results are also of importance both to the study of the no-hair conjecture and the mass-inflation scenario (stability of Cauchy horizons).