arXiv subjects

Rodrigo Panosso Macedo

Publications and source records attributed to Rodrigo Panosso Macedo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Dissection of a merger-ringdown waveform in the small-mass-ratio limit

Work over the past two decades has unveiled the rich phenomenology of black hole binary mergers and subsequent ringdowns, involving a tapestry of quasinormal modes (QNMs), nonlinearities, tails, transients, and secular effects including gravitational memory. Here we develop a framework for analyzing nonlinear merger-ringdown features in the small-mass-ratio limit, where individual effects can be cleanly isolated. Specializing to the case of a quasicircular, nonspinning black hole binary, we find the waveform sharply divides into a pre-merger extended inspiral phase, a merger phase lasting roughly half a cycle, and a post-merger ringdown dominated by QNMs. We show quadratic QNMs dominate over linear overtones in the ringdown phase for comparable-to-intermediate mass ratios, and we highlight nonlinear effects of gravitational-wave memory, including cubic wave-zone phenomena analogous to horizon absorption effects.

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arXiv2026

Time-domain framework for the Teukolsky equation with a particle source using comoving hyperboloidal coordinates

We present a scheme and implementation code for time-domain integration of the Teukolsky equation in 1+1 dimensions with a point-particle source, based on comoving, spatially compactified hyperboloidal coordinates. We demonstrate that the scheme evades the problem of nonphysical growing modes that plague some numerical evolution schemes without compactification. Our use of comoving coordinates greatly simplifies the application of jump conditions on the particle's worldline. We develop our method and test its performance for a scalar field on a Schwarzschild background, first for a circular geodesic orbit source and then for a scattering geodesic orbit. We then present a test implementation of the method for the $s = -2$ Teukolsky equation, illustrating its long-term stability and absence of growing-mode behavior through comparison with similar results using noncompactified characteristic coordinates. Our method paves the way to calculations of the full gravitational self-force in extreme-mass-ratio scattering.

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arXiv2026

Bilinear products and the orthogonality of quasinormal modes on hyperboloidal foliations

We explore the properties of bilinear products for black-hole quasinormal modes (QNMs) formulated on hyperboloidal foliations. We find that, although QNM solutions are smooth and finite on future-directed hyperboloids, the integrand of the bilinear form with respect to which the modes are orthogonal is still divergent. This is a result of the reflection (equivalently, CPT) transformation required in the definition of the products, which modifies the behaviour of the integrand at the boundaries. We present several regularisation procedures that yield a finite and well-defined bilinear form. In addition, we examine an alternative definition of the bilinear products that incorporates flux contributions, discussing its advantages and limitations. Finally, we define the QNM excitation factors and coefficients within the hyperboloidal framework in terms of the bilinear products, and compute them explicitly for a choice of mode numbers and constant initial data. For concreteness, we work with the QNMs associated to scalar perturbations of the Schwarzschild family of spacetimes.

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arXiv2026

The linearised conformal Einstein field equations around a Petrov-type~D spacetime: the conformal Teukolsky equation

While the Teukolsky equation plays a central role in traditional treatments of perturbations of algebraically special spacetimes, its relation to Friedrich's conformal Einstein field equations (CEFEs) remains largely unexplored. Here we develop a conformal formulation of black-hole perturbation theory based on the CEFEs and derive the conformal Teukolsky equation. Starting from a transparent review of Friedrich's regularisation strategy, this work establishes a direct connection between mainstream curvature-based linear perturbation theory and conformal formulations of general relativity. This perspective is timely given the growing relevance of hyperboloidal frameworks in black-hole perturbation theory, where conformal compactification is introduced at the level of an already linearised effective wave equation. Here instead, the conformal factor is a dynamical variable within the field equations. In the non-linear equations there is a coupling between conformal and curvature perturbations; however, when linearised around a Petrov-type D background, the conformal factor decouples from the equations governing the Newman-Penrose components $\phi_0$ and $\phi_4$ of the rescaled Weyl tensor. The resulting equation preserves the structural form of the classical Teukolsky equation while remaining regular at the conformal boundary. This provides a geometric interpretation of the hyperboloidal master variable and an entry point into the CEFE framework. We further derive the conformal Teukolsky equation for a conformal representation of Kerr spacetime where spatial infinity is realised as a blown-up cylinder. By bridging conformal and traditional approaches to black-hole perturbation theory, the framework highlights a geometrically regular representation of perturbative dynamics that may inform extensions beyond the linear regime.

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arXiv2025

Exceptional Points and Resonance in Black Hole Ringdown

We propose an exceptional-point (EP) framework for black-hole ringdown beyond the standard quasinormal-mode (QNM) paradigm. It provides a first-principles characterization of the resonance associated with avoided crossings near EPs, an effect that conventional QNM analysis cannot fully capture. Employing a phenomenological environmental black-hole model with the hyperboloidal framework, we identify near-coalescence of both QNM eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, and directly demonstrate that the resonance produces enhanced mode contributions in the time domain, resulting in characteristic departures from exponentially damped oscillations. Our formulation further reveals that the EP frequency, given by the average of the resonant modes, emerges as the physically relevant observable in the near-EP regime, and offers a robust foundation for modeling and extracting resonant ringdown signals.

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arXiv2025

Asymptotics and Universality in Black Holes: from the quasinormal Weyl's law to the binary merger waveform

Current state-of-the-art approaches to black hole (BH) dynamics, encompassing several effective approximation schemes, offer a remarkable control of the quantitative aspects of strong gravity. They also provide key insights into some qualitative aspects of the problem. In spite of this, there remain blind spots that hinder the understanding of the mechanisms underlying some observed phenomena, in particular concerning simplicity and universality in BH spacetimes. Adopting an 'asymptotic reasoning' approach, by filtering non-essential degrees of freedom, can potentially unveil universality patterns by identifying key underlying structural stability mechanisms. We first illustrate such an asymptotic approach by focusing on a BH quasinormal (QNM) Weyl's law, that accounts for the universal asymptotics of the QNM "counting function". This permits to identify light-trapping and the (local) redshift effect as the underlying mechanisms, also offering a bridge to the universal patterns found in BH QNM spectral instability. As a by-product, Weyl's law universality formally opens an observational access to spacetime (effective) dimensionality. More heuristically, we sketch a program recently put forward to apply such 'asymptotic reasoning' to address the observed simplicity and universality patterns in binary BH merger dynamics. This program is built as a hierarchy of asymptotic models, potentially making contact with integrability theory in gravity, namely through the background sector in a "wave-mean flow" approach to BH binary dynamics.

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arXiv2025

Black hole mergers beyond general relativity: a self-force approach

Gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers provide a glimpse of gravitational dynamics in its most extreme observable regime, potentially enabling precision tests of general relativity (GR) and of the Kerr description of black holes. However, until recently, numerical simulations of black hole mergers have not been possible in theories beyond GR. While recent breakthroughs have overcome that obstacle, simulations covering the full, interesting range of binary parameters remain unfeasible. Here we present a new first-principles approach to this problem. We show how self-force theory can be used to model the merger and ringdown of black holes in a broad class of gravitational theories, assuming one object is much smaller than the other. We calculate self-force effects on the merger waveform for the first time, and we demonstrate how our formulation allows us to modularly compute beyond-GR effects and readily incorporate them into a fast merger-ringdown waveform model.

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arXiv2025

Total absorption of tailored incoming signals by black holes

We uncover a new class of phenomena in gravitational physics, whereby resonances in the complex plane can be excited via tailored time-dependent scattering. We show that specific forms of temporal modulation of an incoming signal can lead to complete absorption for the entire duration of the scattering process. This, then, makes stars and black holes truly black. Such ``virtual absorption'' stores energy with high efficiency, releasing it once the process finishes via relaxation into the characteristic virtual absorption modes -- also known as total transmission modes -- of the object. While such modes are challenging to obtain and four-dimensional black holes have a restricted set of solutions, we also show that higher dimensional black holes have a complex and interesting structure of virtual absorption modes.

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arXiv2025

Spectral instability of horizonless compact objects within astrophysical environments

Recent non-modal analyses have uncovered spectral instabilities in the quasinormal-mode spectrum of black holes; a phenomenon that intriguingly extends to spherically-symmetric exotic compact objects. These results point to a sensitivity of the spectrum with potentially far-reaching implications for black-hole spectroscopy. At the same time, growing attention has turned to astrophysical environments around compact objects and their role in shaping gravitational-wave astrophysics. In this work, we establish a direct link between spectral instabilities and environmental effects by modeling matter as a localized bump outside the light ring of a spectrally-unstable exotic compact object with a purely reflective surface. We find that while such environments can destabilize the fundamental quasinormal modes of loosely-compact exotic objects, the fundamental modes of ultra-compact horizonless objects remain remarkably robust. In contrast, overtones are shown to develop spectral instabilities in the presence of the bump. By tracking both interior modes, trapped between the light ring and the surface of the exotic compact object, and exterior modes, confined between the bump and the light ring, we uncover an overtaking instability in which ``unperturbed'' exterior overtones metamorphose into ``perturbed'' fundamental modes as the bump moves outward. Finally, we demonstrate that environmental effects, while capable of further amplifying spectral instabilities, cannot induce next-to-leading-order perturbations strong enough to trigger a modal instability.

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arXiv2025

Topical Collection-Hyperboloidal Foliations in the Era of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy: From Mathematical Relativity to Astrophysics

Editorial introducing the GRG Topical Collection "Hyperboloidal foliations in the era of gravitational-wave astronomy," on hyperboloidal slices. The collection includes contributions spanning black-hole perturbations, asymptotic geometry, initial-data, and high-accuracy numerical methods relevant to gravitational-wave modeling. The collection grew out of the 2023 "Infinity on a Gridshell" workshop in Copenhagen.

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arXiv2025

Gravitational-wave tails and memory effect for mergers in astrophysical environments

Gravitational waves from the coalescence of compact objects carry information about their dynamics and the spacetime in regions where they are evolving. In particular, late-time tails and memory effects after the merger are two low-frequency phenomena, not detectable by current instruments, but which can be observed by future detectors. Their low-frequency nature could, in principle, make them more sensitive to larger-scale structures at galactic length scales. We show that indeed there are transient features, such as amplitude changes, in both tails and (linear) memory when the merger occurs while immersed in an astrophysical environment. For realistic galaxies, the environment's compactness is small enough that the effect is strongly suppressed, but these effects could become relevant for mergers occurring in regions with matter overdensities, like the ones recently observed numerically for wave dark matter. On the other hand, the memory (the difference between the amplitude asymptotically early and late) and asymptotically late decay are independent on the properties of the environment.

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arXiv2025

Limiting geometry and spectral instability in Schwarzschild--de Sitter spacetimes

We revisit the quasinormal mode (QNM) problem in Schwarzschild--de Sitter spacetimes providing a unified infrastructure tailored for studying limiting configurations. Geometrically, we employ the hyperboloidal framework to explicitly implement Geroch's rigorous limiting procedures for families of spacetimes. This enables a controlled transition between Schwarzschild, de Sitter, and Nariai geometries. Numerically, we introduce the analytical mesh refinement technique into quasinormal mode calculations, successfully recovering -- within the appropriate limiting scenarios -- both known families of quasinormal modes: complex light ring modes and purely imaginary de Sitter modes. We interpret these results in terms of spectral instability, where the notions of stable and unstable modes depends on the specific spacetime limit under consideration. In the Schwarzschild limit, de Sitter modes appear as a destabilizing effect on the continuous branch cut at $\omega = 0$. Conversely, the branch cut can be understood as emerging from an infinite accumulation of discrete modes at $\omega = 0$ in the transitional regime. We propose a heuristic measure of QNM density to characterize this accumulation and highlight the need for a more rigorous study of potential branch cut instabilities -- especially relevant in the context of late-time gravitational wave signals. The proposed infrastructure provides a general and extensible framework for investigations in more complex spacetimes, such as Reissner--Nordstr\"om--de Sitter or Kerr--Newman--de Sitter.

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arXiv2025

Quasinormal modes in Kerr spacetime as a 2D Eigenvalue problem

We revisit the computation of quasinormal modes (QNMs) of the Kerr black hole using a numerical approach exploiting a representation of the Teukolsky equation as a $2D$ elliptic partial differential equation. By combining the hyperboloidal framework with a $m$-mode decomposition, we recast the QNM problem into a genuine eigenvalue problem for each azimuthal mode. This formulation enables the simultaneous extraction of multiple QNMs, traditionally labelled by overtone number $n$ and angular index $\ell$, without requiring prior assumptions about their structure. We advocate for a simplified notation in which each overtone is uniquely labelled by a single index $q$, thereby avoiding the conventional but artificial distinction between regular and mirror modes. We compare two distinct hyperboloidal gauges-radial fixing and Cauchy horizon fixing-and demonstrate that, despite their different geometric properties and behaviour in the extremal limit, they yield numerical values for the QNM spectra with comparable accuracy and exponential convergence. Moreover, we show that strong gradients observed near the horizon in the extremal Kerr regime are coordinate artefacts of specific slicing rather than physical features. Finally, we investigate the angular structure of the QNM eigenfunctions and show that the $m$-mode approach allows flexible projection onto both spin-weighted spheroidal and spherical harmonic bases. These results underscore the robustness and versatility of the hyperboloidal $m$-mode method as a foundation for future studies of QNM stability, pseudospectra, and mode excitation in gravitational wave astronomy.

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arXiv2025

Black hole spectroscopy: from theory to experiment

The "ringdown" radiation emitted by oscillating black holes has great scientific potential. By carefully predicting the frequencies and amplitudes of black hole quasinormal modes and comparing them with gravitational-wave data from compact binary mergers we can advance our understanding of the two-body problem in general relativity, verify the predictions of the theory in the regime of strong and dynamical gravitational fields, and search for physics beyond the Standard Model or new gravitational degrees of freedom. We summarize the state of the art in our understanding of black hole quasinormal modes in general relativity and modified gravity, their excitation, and the modeling of ringdown waveforms. We also review the status of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA ringdown observations, data analysis techniques, and the bright prospects of the field in the era of LISA and next-generation ground-based gravitational-wave detectors.

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arXiv2025

Black hole spectral instabilities in the laboratory: Shallow water analogue

Small deviations in the spacetime around black holes can lead to instabilities in the underlying quasinormal mode spectrum, potentially altering the hierarchy of its overtones. A practical way to induce such spectral instability is by introducing small modifications to the effective potential governing the dynamics of fluctuations in the black hole spacetime. While finding a physically meaningful interpretation for such ad hoc modifications in an astrophysical context can be challenging, analogue black hole models provide an alternative framework to explore their effects and study the instabilities. In this work, we consider an analogue black hole modeled by a draining bathtub flow and demonstrate that vorticities in the fluid introduce a small bump in the effective potential of the wave equation. This naturally realizes a physically motivated version of the elephant and the flea configuration. We analyze the spectrum using two complementary approaches: direct mode computation via two distinct frequency-domain methods and time evolution of initial perturbations. As in astrophysical black holes, the vorticities destabilizes the QNM spectrum of the analogue system, possibly yielding time evolution with long-lived ringing effects, akin to those observed for massive fields in curved spacetimes.

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arXiv2025

Pseudospectrum of rotating analog black holes

Analyzing the stability of quasinormal modes (QNM) is essential for understanding black hole dynamics, particularly in the context of gravitational wave emissions and black hole spectroscopy. In this study, we employ the hyperboloidal approach to reformulate the quasinormal mode problem of a rotating analog black hole, effectively transforming it into an eigenvalue problem associated with a nonself-adjoint operator. Using this method, we examine the influence of rotation on the stability of the QNM spectrum, relying on the associated pseudospectrum for qualitative assessment. Our findings indicate that the prograde overtones become more stable as rotation increases. This work enhances our understanding of spectrum stability in rotating systems and expands the study of pseudospectra in non-spherically symmetric spacetimes, with potential for empirical testing in terrestrial laboratories.

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arXiv2025

Quadratic quasinormal modes at null infinity on a Schwarzschild spacetime

The ringdown of perturbed black holes has been studied since the 1970s, but until recently, studies have focused on linear perturbations. There is now burgeoning interest in nonlinear perturbative effects during ringdown. Here, using a hyperboloidal framework, we provide a complete treatment of linear and quadratic quasinormal modes (QNMs and QQNMs) in second-order perturbation theory, in Schwarzschild spacetime. We include novel methods for extracting QNMs and QQNMs amplitudes using a Laplace transform treatment, allowing for the inclusion of arbitrary initial data. We produce both time- and frequency-domain codes. From these codes, we present new results further exploring the unforeseen dependence of QQNMs amplitudes on the parity of the progenitor system, as demonstrated in our letter [Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 061401 (2025)]. Our numerical results are restricted to perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole, but our methods extend straightforwardly to the astrophysically realistic case of a Kerr black hole.

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arXiv2025

The Confluent Heun functions in Black Hole Perturbation Theory: a spacetime interpretation

This work provides a spacetime interpretation of the confluent Heun functions within black hole perturbation theory (BHPT) and explores their relationship to the hyperboloidal framework. In BHPT, the confluent Heun functions are solutions to the radial Teukolsky equation, but they are traditionally studied without an explicit reference to the underlying spacetime geometry. Here, we show that the distinct behaviour of these functions near their singular points reflects the structure of key surfaces in black hole spacetimes. By interpreting homotopic transformations of the confluent Heun functions as changes in the spacetime foliation, we connect these solutions to different regions of the black hole's global structure, such as the past and future event horizons, past and future null infinity, spatial infinity, and even past and future timelike infinity. We also discuss the relationship between the confluent Heun functions and the hyperboloidal formulation of the Teukolsky equation. Although neither confluent Heun form of the radial Teukolsky equation can be interpreted as hyperboloidal slices, this approach offers new insights into wave propagation and scattering from a global black hole spacetime perspective.

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