Search

We discuss the quasi-normal oscillations of black holes which are sourced by a nonlinear electrodynamic field. While previous studies have focused on the computation of quasi-normal frequencies for the wave or higher spin equation on a fixed background geometry described by such black holes, here we compute for the first time the quasi-normal frequencies for the coupled electromagnetic-gravitational linear perturbations. To this purpose, we consider a parametrized family of Lagrangians for the electromagnetic field which contains the Maxwell Lagrangian as a special case. In the Maxwell case, the unique spherically symmetric black hole solutions are described by the Reissner-Nordstr\"om family and in this case it is well-known that the quasi-normal spectra in the even- and odd-parity sectors are identical to each other. However, when moving away from the Maxwell case, we obtain deformed Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes, and we show that in this case there is a parity splitting in the quasi-normal mode spectra. A partial explanation for this phenomena is provided by considering the eikonal (high-frequency) limit., Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures

We analyze the properties of a polytropic fluid which is radially accreted into a Schwarzschild black hole. The case where the adiabatic index gamma lies in the range 1 < gamma <= 5/3 has been treated in previous work. In this article we analyze the complementary range 5/3 < gamma <= 2. To this purpose, the problem is cast into an appropriate Hamiltonian dynamical system whose phase flow is analyzed. While for 1 < gamma <= 5/3 the solutions are always characterized by the presence of a unique critical saddle point, we show that when 5/3 < gamma <= 2, an additional critical point might appear which is a center point. For the parametrization used in this paper we prove that whenever this additional critical point appears, there is a homoclinic orbit., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures

In recent work, we analyzed the dynamics of spherical and nonspherical acoustic perturbations of the Michel flow, describing the steady radial accretion of a relativistic perfect fluid into a nonrotating black hole. We showed that such perturbations undergo quasi-normal oscillations and computed the corresponding complex frequencies as a function of the black hole mass M and the radius r_c of the sonic horizon. It was found that when r_c is much larger than the Schwarzschild radius r_H = 2GM/c^2 of the black hole, these frequencies scale like the surface gravity of the analogue black hole associated with the acoustic metric. In this work, we analyze the Newtonian limit of the Michel solution and its acoustic perturbations. In this limit, the flow outside the sonic horizon reduces to the transonic Bondi flow, and the acoustic metric reduces to the one introduced by Unruh in the context of experimental black hole evaporation. We show that for the transonic Bondi flow, Unruh's acoustic metric describes an analogue black hole and compute the associated quasi-normal frequencies. We prove that they do indeed scale like the surface gravity of the acoustic black hole, thus providing an explanation for our previous results in the relativistic setting., Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures

We study spherical and nonspherical linear acoustic perturbations of the Michel flow, which describes the steady radial accretion of a perfect fluid into a nonrotating black hole. The dynamics of such perturbations are governed by a scalar wave equation on an effective curved background geometry determined by the acoustic metric, which is constructed from the spacetime metric and the particle density and four-velocity of the fluid. For the problem under consideration in this article the acoustic metric has the same qualitative features as an asymptotically flat, static and spherically symmetric black hole, and thus it represents a natural astrophysical analogue black hole. As for the case of a scalar field propagating on a Schwarzschild background, we show that acoustic perturbations of the Michel flow exhibit quasi-normal oscillations. Based on a new numerical method for determining the solutions of the radial mode equation, we compute the associated frequencies and analyze their dependency on the radii of the event and sonic horizons and the angular momentum number. Our results for the fundamental frequencies are compared to those obtained from an independent numerical Cauchy evolution, finding good agreement between the two approaches. When the radius of the sonic horizon is large compared to the event horizon radius, we find that the quasi-normal frequencies scale approximately like the surface gravity associated with the sonic horizon., Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures. Typos corrected. New subsection V.C discussing the eikonal limit. Matches published version

We analyze the steady radial accretion of matter into a nonrotating black hole. Neglecting the self-gravity of the accreting matter, we consider a rather general class of static, spherically symmetric and asymptotically flat background spacetimes with a regular horizon. In addition to the Schwarzschild metric, this class contains certain deformation of it which could arise in alternative gravity theories or from solutions of the classical Einstein equations in the presence of external matter fields. Modeling the ambient matter surrounding the black hole by a relativistic perfect fluid, we reformulate the accretion problem as a dynamical system, and under rather general assumptions on the fluid equation of state, we determine the local and global qualitative behavior of its phase flow. Based on our analysis and generalizing previous work by Michel, we prove that for any given positive particle density number at infinity, there exists a unique radial, steady-state accretion flow which is regular at the horizon. We determine the physical parameters of the flow, including its accretion and compression rates, and discuss their dependency on the background metric., Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures. Typos corrected, additional references, new figure showing accretion flow in deformed Schwarzschild black hole. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity

We present a new covariant, gauge-invariant formalism describing linear metric perturbation fields on any spherically symmetric background in general relativity. The advantage of this formalism relies in the fact that it does not require a decomposition of the perturbations into spherical tensor harmonics. Furthermore, it does not assume the background to be vacuum, nor does it require its staticity. In the particular case of vacuum perturbations, we derive two master equations describing the propagation of arbitrary linear gravitational waves on a Schwarzschild black hole. When decomposed into spherical harmonics, they reduce to covariant generalizations of the well-known Regge-Wheeler and Zerilli equations. Next, we discuss the general case where the metric perturbations are coupled to matter fields and derive a new constrained wave system describing the propagation of three gauge-invariant scalars from which the complete metric perturbations can be reconstructed. We apply our formalism to the Einstein-Euler system, dividing the fluid perturbations into two parts. The first part, which decouples from the metric perturbations, obeys simple advection equations along the background flow and describes the propagation of the entropy and the vorticity. The second part describes a perturbed potential flow, and together with the metric perturbations it forms a closed wave system., Comment: 31 pages, no figures, to appear in PRD