A new look on black hole perturbations in modified gravity

Abstract

We study the linear perturbations about a nonrotating black hole solution of Horndeski's theory, using a systematic approach that extracts the asymptotic behaviour of perturbations (at spatial infinity and near the horizon) directly from the first-order radial differential system governing these perturbations instead of finding Schr\"odinger-like equations for their dynamics. We illustrate this method in the case of a specific black hole solution. The knowledge of the asymptotic behaviours of the perturbations paves the way for a numerical computation of the quasinormal modes. Finally, the asymptotic form of the modes also signals some pathologies in the scalar sector of the solution considered here.