Quasinormal frequencies in Reissner-Nordstr\"om de Sitter black holes: constraints from space-time and scalar field parameters

Abstract

We examine the quasinormal modes exhibited by a massive scalar test field carrying an electric charge, oscillating in the outer region of a Reissner-Nordstr\"om de Sitter black hole. We examine the quasinormal mode effective potential throughout the black hole mass-charge phase space, finding a single-peaked barrier potential on $r_+ < r < r_c$ for all non-extremised black hole solutions for $\ell \geq 1$. Unlike in the Schwarzschild background, increasing scalar field mass heightens the peak of this barrier potential, while increasing the scalar field charge suppresses it. We compute the corresponding quasinormal frequency spectrum using a WKB-based semi-classical method, where, like the Schwarzschild case, we observe anomalous QNM damping behaviour for small scalar field mass below some critical mass $\mu_{crit}$, which is $\ell$-independent for $q=0$.