Quasinormal modes on black hole spacetimes

Colloquia & Seminars

Quasinormal modes on black hole spacetimes
Date/Time:28 Mar 2019 16:00 Venue: S17 #05-12 SR4 Speaker: Dejan Gajic, University of Cambridge Quasinormal modes on black hole spacetimes A fundamental problem in the context of Einstein’s equations of general relativity is to understand the evolution of small perturbations of stationary black hole solutions. It is expected that there is a discrete set of characteristic frequencies that play a dominant role at late times and carry information about the nature of the black hole, similar to the normal frequencies of a vibrating guitar string. These frequencies are called quasinormal frequencies and they are closely related to scattering resonances in the study of Schrödinger’s equation. I will consider the linear wave equation on black hole backgrounds as a toy model for the Einstein equations and give an introduction to quasinormal frequencies in this setting. Then I will discuss a new method of defining and studying quasinormal frequencies on asymptotically flat spacetimes, developed from joint work with Claude Warnick, which interprets the frequencies as honest eigenvalues of a natural operator acting on a Hilbert space. Add to calendar: