Black hole superradiance in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity
Stephon Alexander, Gregory Gabadadze, Leah Jenks, Nicolás Yunes
Abstract
Black hole superradiance provides a window into the dynamics of light scalar fields and their interactions close to a rotating black hole. Owing to the rotation of the black hole, the amplitude of the scalar field becomes magnified, leading to a ``black hole bomb'' effect. Recent work has demonstrated that rotating black holes in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity possess unique structures, the ``Chern-Simons caps,'' which may influence the behavior of matter near the black hole. Motivated by the presence of these caps, we study superradiance in dynamical Chern-Simons gravity in the context of a slowly rotating black hole. We find additional contributions to the superradiance beyond what is expected for a Kerr black hole. Studying the superradiant spectrum of perturbations, we find that the Chern-Simons contributions give rise to small corrections to the angular dependence of the resulting scalar cloud. Finally, we comment on potential observable consequences and future avenues for investigation.