Asymptotic black hole quasinormal frequencies

Abstract

We give a new derivation of the quasinormal frequencies of Schwarzschild black holes in d greater than or equal to 4 and Reissner-Nordstrom black holes in d = 4, in the limit of infinite damping. For Schwarzschild in d greater than or equal to 4 we find that the asymptotic real part is T_Hawkinglog(3) for scalar perturbations and for some gravitational perturbations; this confirms a result previously obtained by other means in the case d = 4. For Reissner-Nordstrom in d = 4 we find a specific generally aperiodic behavior for the quasinormal frequencies, both for scalar perturbations and for electromagnetic-gravitational perturbations. The formulae are obtained by studying the monodromy of the perturbation analytically continued to the complex plane; the analysis depends essentially on the behavior of the potential in the 'unphysical' region near the black hole singularity.