Quasinormal Modes and the Switchback Effect in Schwarzschild-de Sitter

Abstract

We study the causal structure of Schwarzschild-de Sitter (SdS), including shock wave perturbations, in $D>3$ using reflected null ray trajectories, either through the interior black hole or the exterior de Sitter region. Specifically, we compute the quasinormal mode frequencies in the eikonal, high-frequency, limit, by identifying the `critical time', for arbitrary values of the black hole mass. We emphasize the important role of the static sphere proper time normalization and related boundary conditions. The computed critical times indicate the presence of singularities in the late-time, large mass, scalar field correlator in SdS, which should be resolved by introducing complex geodesics consistent with interior black hole and exterior de Sitter effective thermofield double states. In addition we relate the critical time to a diverging holographic complexity observable and compute the `switchback' delay by adding a pair of shock wave perturbations for arbitrary values of the mass of the black hole.