Gravitational ringing of rotating black holes in higher-derivative gravity

We study gravitational perturbations of slowly rotating black holes in a general effective-field-theory extension of general relativity that includes up to eight-derivative terms. We show that two Schrodinger-like equations with spin-dependent effective potentials govern the odd- and even-parity master variables. These equations are coupled for parity-violating corrections, and this coupling affects the quasinormal modes even at linear order in the higher-derivative corrections, due to their isospectrality in general relativity. We provide results for the shifts in the fundamental quasinormal mode frequencies at linear order in the spin, which we expect to be valuable for high-precision phenomenology through future gravitational wave observations.

Automated summary

In this article, we study the gravitational perturbations of slowly rotating black holes in a general effective-field-theory extension of general relativity. We find two Schrodinger-like equations that govern the odd- and even-parity master variables, and show that they are coupled for parity-violating corrections. We also provide results for the shifts in the fundamental quasinormal mode frequencies at linear order in the spin, which could be valuable for future gravitational wave observations.