Cubic Quasinormal Modes in the Black-Hole Ringdown

Abstract

We formulate and numerically solve the nonlinear Teukolsky equations through third order, obtaining a first-principles calculation of cubic quasinormal-mode amplitudes for Kerr black holes. Our approach combines lower-order metric reconstruction in split light-cone gauges with a hyperboloidal, compactified formulation solved on complex radial contours. Spin-dependent complex coupling coefficients fix the cubic amplitudes from products of their linear parent amplitudes. We apply these predictions to a nonprecessing numerical-relativity waveform, including cubic products of the $(2,2)$ fundamental mode, its first overtone, and their conjugates. The predicted cubic terms improve agreement over selected early-ringdown fitting windows and shift inferred linear-overtone amplitudes without adding fitting parameters. $3M$ after the peak of $|h_{22}|$, the summed cubic contribution reaches approximately $38\%$ of the total $h_{22}$ signal; $M$ is the initial total mass. These results identify an appreciable cubic response in early ringdown.