Hidden conformal symmetry and quasinormal modes

Abstract

We provide an algebraic way to calculate the quasinormal modes of a black hole, which possesses a hidden conformal symmetry. We construct an infinite tower of quasinormal modes from the highest-weight mode, in a simple and elegant way. For the scalar, the hidden conformal symmetry manifests itself in the fact that the scalar Laplacian could be rewritten in terms of the $SL(2,R)$ quadratic Casimir. For the vector and the tensor, the hidden conformal symmetry acts on them through Lie derivatives. We show that for three-dimensional black holes, with an appropriate combination of the components, the radial equations of the vector and the tensor could be written in terms of the Lie-induced quadratic Casimir. This makes the algebraic construction of the quasinormal modes feasible. Our results are in good agreement with the previous study.