Quasi-Normal Modes

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Our research on quasi-normal modes, the ringing of black holes and wormholes, told in plain words for every curious reader.

Left: two differently shaped potential barriers around a ten-dimensional black hole, one of which dips below zero. Right: the two ringing signals they produce, which coincide in pitch and decay over eight orders of magnitude.
Two barriers around a ten-dimensional black hole that look nothing alike (left) trap waves that ring with the same pitch and the same fading (right). Credit: Denys Dutykh and Davide Batic, CC BY 4.0.

Phys.org · Science X Dialog ·

Higher-dimensional black holes hide an exact symmetry in their ringing, and string-inspired gravity breaks it

by Denys Dutykh

Strike a bell, and it rings with a pitch and a fading that tell you about the bell: its size, its shape, the metal it is made of. Black holes ring too. When two merge, the newborn black hole shivers and sheds gravitational waves in a brief, dying chord, and since 2015, gravitational-wave detectors have been listening. The notes of that chord, which physicists call quasinormal modes, depend only on the black hole's mass and spin and on the law of gravity itself. Change the law, and the chord changes.

The article tells the story of our paper Quasinormal modes of Gauss–Bonnet black holes via the spectral method: Scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations, Phys. Rev. D (2026).

Published Manuscripts

Quasinormal modes of Hayward black holes from Schwarzschild to extremality: A comparative spectral analysis
Batic, D. & Dutykh, D.

Batic, D. & Dutykh, D. (2026). Quasinormal modes of Hayward black holes from Schwarzschild to extremality: A comparative spectral analysis. Phys. Dark Univ., 54, 102467.

DOI: 10.1016/j.dark.2026.102467
Quasinormal-mode analysis of a massive scalar field in a Schwarzschild background via the spectral method
Batic, D., Chrysostomou, A., Cornell, A. S. & Dutykh, D.

Batic, D., Chrysostomou, A., Cornell, A. S. & Dutykh, D. (2026). Quasinormal-mode analysis of a massive scalar field in a Schwarzschild background via the spectral method. Phys. Rev. D, 114(6), 065020.

DOI: 10.1103/kv2k-1d3m
Quasinormal modes of Gauss–Bonnet black holes via the spectral method: Scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations
Batic, D. & Dutykh, D.

Batic, D. & Dutykh, D. (2026). Quasinormal modes of Gauss–Bonnet black holes via the spectral method: Scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations. Phys. Rev. D, 114(4), 044015.

DOI: 10.1103/91q6-r3jd
Quasinormal modes of the Kazakov–Solodukhin quantum-corrected black hole: a spectral analysis
Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Sukaiti, M. E.

Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Sukaiti, M. E. (2026). Quasinormal modes of the Kazakov–Solodukhin quantum-corrected black hole: a spectral analysis. Eur. Phys. J. C, 86(7), 847.

DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-16102-3
Quasinormal modes of Bonanno-Reuter black holes via the spectral method
Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Scardigli, F.

Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Scardigli, F. (2026). Quasinormal modes of Bonanno-Reuter black holes via the spectral method. Phys. Rev. D, 114(2), 024023.

DOI: 10.1103/sgt6-kwfl
Spectral analysis of quasinormal modes of Planck stars
Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Scardigli, F.

Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Scardigli, F. (2026). Spectral analysis of quasinormal modes of Planck stars. Eur. Phys. J. C, 86(2), 165.

DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-15430-8
Quasi-normal modes of non-commutative geometry-inspired dirty black holes
Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Babou, Z. A.

Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Babou, Z. A. (2025). Quasi-normal modes of non-commutative geometry-inspired dirty black holes. Proc. R. Soc. A, 481, 20250021.

DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2025.0021
A spectral approach for quasinormal frequencies of noncommutative geometry-inspired wormholes
Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Jamal Beek, J.

Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Jamal Beek, J. (2025). A spectral approach for quasinormal frequencies of noncommutative geometry-inspired wormholes. Class. Quantum Grav., 42(8), 085003.

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/adc2c6
Instability analysis of massive static phantom wormholes via the spectral method
Batic, D. & Dutykh, D.

Batic, D. & Dutykh, D. (2025). Instability analysis of massive static phantom wormholes via the spectral method. Eur. Phys. J. C, 85(2), 144.

DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-13867-x
Unified spectral approach for quasinormal modes of Lee-Wick black holes
Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Giacchini, B. L.

Batic, D., Dutykh, D. & Giacchini, B. L. (2024). Unified spectral approach for quasinormal modes of Lee-Wick black holes. Phys. Rev. D, 110(8), 084032.

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.110.084032
A unified spectral approach for quasinormal modes of Morris-Thorne wormholes
Batic, D. & Dutykh, D.

Batic, D. & Dutykh, D. (2024). A unified spectral approach for quasinormal modes of Morris-Thorne wormholes. Class. Quantum Grav., 41(21), 215003.

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6382/ad7cb8
Quasinormal modes in noncommutative Schwarzschild black holes: a spectral analysis
Batic, D. & Dutykh, D.

Batic, D. & Dutykh, D. (2024). Quasinormal modes in noncommutative Schwarzschild black holes: a spectral analysis. Eur. Phys. J. C, 84(6), 622.

DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-12981-6