Black Hole Quasinormal Modes and Seiberg-Witten Theory

Abstract

We present new analytic results on black hole perturbation theory. Our results are based on a novel relation to four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories. We propose an exact version of Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization conditions on quasinormal mode frequencies in terms of the Nekrasov partition function in a particular phase of the Ω-background. Our quantization conditions also enable us to find exact expressions of eigenvalues of spin-weighted spheroidal harmonics. We test the validity of our conjecture by comparing against known numerical results for Kerr black holes as well as for Schwarzschild black holes. Some extensions are also discussed.