Inverse design of scalar-tensor EFT from odd-parity effective potentials

Abstract

We develop an inverse-design approach to the effective field theory (EFT) of perturbations in scalar-tensor gravity around static and spherically symmetric backgrounds with a timelike scalar-field gradient, taking the odd-parity effective potential as input and reconstructing compatible background and EFT data. As analytically tractable examples, we construct explicit realizations of the Pöschl-Teller potential, for which the quasinormal-mode spectrum can be obtained in closed form. We then study the Regge-Wheeler potential of general relativity and its parametrized deformations, showing how both can be realized within the scalar-tensor EFT. In particular, the latter realizations provide a route to interpreting phenomenological constraints on potential deformations from black hole ringdown observations in terms of the underlying EFT data.