Black hole ringdown spectroscopy of curvature-coupled scalar and pseudoscalar fields
- 1DAMTP
- 2University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Abstract
Remnant black holes formed in compact binary coalescences provide a clean setting for probing additional fields coupled to gravity. By analyzing the ringdown signals of the loudest LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA binary-black hole mergers, we search for massless curvature-coupled (pseudo)scalar fields arising in extensions to general relativity. We find no evidence for such fields and place 90% credible upper limits on the coupling length scale, ℓ ≲ ( 25 – 45 ) km, corresponding to scales significantly below the horizons of the remnant black holes. These results include the first gravitational-wave constraint on an axidilaton-type coupling. By isolating the ringdown phase and performing extensive robustness checks, our analysis provides a complementary observational probe to existing full-waveform constraints. As the gravitational-wave catalog expands, black hole ringdown spectroscopy will enable increasingly sensitive probes of gravity and additional fields using astrophysical black holes.
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BibTeX
@article{chung2026black,
title = {{Black hole ringdown spectroscopy of curvature-coupled scalar and pseudoscalar fields}},
author = {Adrian Ka-Wai Chung and Nicolás Yunes},
journal = {Physical review. D/Physical review. D.},
year = {2026},
month = jun,
doi = {10.1103/2ctd-mgb6},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1103/2ctd-mgb6},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Black hole ringdown spectroscopy of curvature-coupled scalar and pseudoscalar fields
AU - Adrian Ka-Wai Chung
AU - Nicolás Yunes
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/06/12
JO - Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
DO - 10.1103/2ctd-mgb6
UR - https://doi.org/10.1103/2ctd-mgb6
AB - Remnant black holes formed in compact binary coalescences provide a clean setting for probing additional fields coupled to gravity. By analyzing the ringdown signals of the loudest LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA binary-black hole mergers, we search for massless curvature-coupled (pseudo)scalar fields arising in extensions to general relativity. We find no evidence for such fields and place 90% credible upper limits on the coupling length scale, ℓ ≲ ( 25 – 45 ) km, corresponding to scales significantly below the horizons of the remnant black holes. These results include the first gravitational-wave constraint on an axidilaton-type coupling. By isolating the ringdown phase and performing extensive robustness checks, our analysis provides a complementary observational probe to existing full-waveform constraints. As the gravitational-wave catalog expands, black hole ringdown spectroscopy will enable increasingly sensitive probes of gravity and additional fields using astrophysical black holes.
SN - 2470-0010
SN - 2470-0029
SN - 2470-0037
ER -