Dynamics of perturbations of rotating black holes

Abstract

We present a numerical study of the time evolution of perturbations of rotating black holes. The solutions are obtained by integrating the Teukolsky equation written as a first-order in time, coupled system of equations, in a form that explicitly captures its hyperbolic structure. We address the numerical difficulties of solving the equation in its original form. We follow the propagation of generic initial data through the burst, quasinormal ringing and power-law tail phases. In particular, we calculate the effects due to the rotation of the black hole on the scattering of incident gravitational wave pulses. These results may help explain how the angular momentum of the black hole affects the gravitational waves that are generated during the final stages of black hole coalescence.