Perturbations of microstate geometries

It has been proposed that at least some quantum microstates of a black hole are described by smooth, horizon-free solutions of supergravity theory. These solutions have a complicated geometry which resembles the black hole outside a "throat" region. The project will examine linear perturbations of such geometries to determine whether they behave in the same way as in a black hole spacetime. In particular, quasi-normal modes (describing damped oscillations) of such spacetimes will be determined and compared to the corresponding modes in a black hole spacetime.