There is a well-known, intuitive geometric correspondence between high-frequency quasinormal modes of Schwarzschild black holes and null geodesics that reside on the light ring (often called spherical photon orbits): the real part of the mode’s frequency relates to the geodesic’s orbital frequency, and the imaginary part of the frequency corresponds to the Lyapunov exponent of the orbit. For slowly rotating black holes, the quasinormal mode’s real frequency is a linear combination of the orbit’s precessional and orbital frequencies, but the correspondence is otherwise unchanged. In this paper, we find a relationship between the quasinormal-mode frequencies of Kerr black holes of arbitrary (astrophysical) spins and general spherical photon orbits, which is analogous to the relationship for slowly rotating holes. To derive this result, we first use the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin approximation to compute accurate algebraic expressions for large-$l$ quasinormal-mode frequencies. Comparing our Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin calculation to the leading-order, geometric-optics approximation to scalar-wave propagation in the Kerr spacetime, we then draw a correspondence between the real parts of the parameters of a quasinormal mode and the conserved quantities of spherical photon orbits. At next-to-leading order in this comparison, we relate the imaginary parts of the quasinormal-mode parameters to coefficients that modify the amplitude of the scalar wave. With this correspondence, we find a geometric interpretation of two features of the quasinormal-mode spectrum of Kerr black holes: First, for Kerr holes rotating near the maximal rate, a large number of modes have nearly zero damping; we connect this characteristic to the fact that a large number of spherical photon orbits approach the horizon in this limit. Second, for black holes of any spins, the frequencies of specific sets of modes are degenerate; we find that this feature arises when the spherical photon orbits corresponding to these modes form closed (as opposed to ergodically winding) curves.

We provide an in-depth investigation of quasinormal-mode oscillations of Kerr black holes with nearly extremal angular momenta. We first discuss in greater detail the two distinct types of quasinormal-mode frequencies presented in a recent paper [H. Yang et al., Phys. Rev. D 87, 041502 (2013)]. One set of modes that we call “zero-damping modes” has vanishing imaginary part in the extremal limit and exists for all corotating perturbations (i.e. modes with azimuthal index $m\ge 0$). The other set (the “damped modes”) retains a finite decay rate even for extremal Kerr black holes and exists only for a subset of corotating modes. As the angular momentum approaches its extremal value, the frequency spectrum bifurcates into these two distinct branches when both types of modes are present. We discuss the physical reason for the mode branching by developing and using a bound-state formulation for the perturbations of generic Kerr black holes. We also numerically explore the specific case of the fundamental $l=2$ modes, which have the greatest astrophysical interest. Using the results of these investigations, we compute the quasinormal-mode response of a nearly extremal Kerr black hole to perturbations. We show that many superimposed overtones result in a slow power-law decay of the quasinormal ringing at early times, which later gives way to exponential decay. This exceptional early-time power-law decay implies that the ringdown phase is long lived for black holes with large angular momentum, which could provide a promising strong source for gravitational-wave detectors.

We show that nearly extremal Kerr black holes have two distinct sets of quasinormal modes, which we call zero-damping modes (ZDMs) and damped modes (DMs). The ZDMs exist for all harmonic indices $l$ and $m\ge 0$, and their frequencies cluster onto the real axis in the extremal limit. The DMs have nonzero damping for all black hole spins; they exist for all counterrotating modes ($m<0$) and for corotating modes with $0\le \mu \lesssim {\mu }_c=0.74$ (in the eikonal limit), where $\mu \equiv m/(l+1/2)$. When the two families coexist, ZDMs and DMs merge to form a single set of quasinormal modes as the black hole spin decreases. Using the effective potential for perturbations of the Kerr spacetime, we give intuitive explanations for the absence of DMs in certain areas of the spectrum and for the branching of the spectrum into ZDMs and DMs at large spins.

When one splits spacetime into space plus time, the Weyl curvature tensor (vacuum Riemann tensor) gets split into two spatial, symmetric, and trace-free tensors: (i) the Weyl tensor’s so-called electric part or tidal field ${\mathcal{E}}_{jk}$, which raises tides on the Earth’s oceans and drives geodesic deviation (the relative acceleration of two freely falling test particles separated by a spatial vector ${\xi }^k$ is $\Delta a_j=-{\mathcal{E}}_{jk}{\xi }^k$), and (ii) the Weyl tensor’s so-called magnetic part or (as we call it) frame-drag field ${\mathcal{B}}_{jk}$, which drives differential frame dragging (the precessional angular velocity of a gyroscope at the tip of ${\xi }^k$, as measured using a local inertial frame at the tail of ${\xi }^k$, is $\Delta {\Omega }_j={\mathcal{B}}_{jk}{\xi }^k$). Being symmetric and trace-free, ${\mathcal{E}}_{jk}$ and ${\mathcal{B}}_{jk}$ each have three orthogonal eigenvector fields which can be depicted by their integral curves. We call the integral curves of ${\mathcal{E}}_{jk}$’s eigenvectors tidal tendex lines or simply tendex lines, we call each tendex line’s eigenvalue its tendicity, and we give the name tendex to a collection of tendex lines with large tendicity. The analogous quantities for ${\mathcal{B}}_{jk}$ are frame-drag vortex lines or simply vortex lines, their vorticities, and their vortexes. These concepts are powerful tools for visualizing spacetime curvature. We build up physical intuition into them by applying them to a variety of weak-gravity phenomena: a spinning, gravitating point particle, two such particles side-by-side, a plane gravitational wave, a point particle with a dynamical current-quadrupole moment or dynamical mass-quadrupole moment, and a slow-motion binary system made of nonspinning point particles. We show that a rotating current quadrupole has four rotating vortexes that sweep outward and backward like water streams from a rotating sprinkler. As they sweep, the vortexes acquire accompanying tendexes and thereby become outgoing current-quadrupole gravitational waves. We show similarly that a rotating mass quadrupole has four rotating, outward-and-backward sweeping tendexes that acquire accompanying vortexes as they sweep, and become outgoing mass-quadrupole gravitational waves. We show, further, that an oscillating current quadrupole ejects sequences of vortex loops that acquire accompanying tendex loops as they travel, and become current-quadrupole gravitational waves; and similarly for an oscillating mass quadrupole. And we show how a binary’s tendex lines transition, as one moves radially, from those of two static point particles in the deep near zone, to those of a single spherical body in the outer part of the near zone and inner part of the wave zone (where the binary’s mass monopole moment dominates), to those of a rotating quadrupole in the far wave zone (where the quadrupolar gravitational waves dominate). In Paper II we will use these vortex and tendex concepts to gain insight into the quasinormal modes of black holes, and in subsequent papers, by combining these concepts with numerical simulations, we will explore the nonlinear dynamics of curved spacetime around colliding black holes. We have published a brief overview of these applications in R. Owen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 151101 (2011). We expect these vortex and tendex concepts to become powerful tools for general relativity research in a variety of topics.

When one splits spacetime into space plus time, the spacetime curvature (Weyl tensor) gets split into an “electric” part ${\mathcal{E}}_{jk}$ that describes tidal gravity and a “magnetic” part ${\mathcal{B}}_{jk}$ that describes differential dragging of inertial frames. We introduce tools for visualizing ${\mathcal{B}}_{jk}$ (frame-drag vortex lines, their vorticity, and vortexes) and ${\mathcal{E}}_{jk}$ (tidal tendex lines, their tendicity, and tendexes) and also visualizations of a black-hole horizon’s (scalar) vorticity and tendicity. We use these tools to elucidate the nonlinear dynamics of curved spacetime in merging black-hole binaries.

In recent papers, we and colleagues have introduced a way to visualize the full vacuum Riemann curvature tensor using frame-drag vortex lines and their vorticities, and tidal tendex lines and their tendicities. We have also introduced the concepts of horizon vortexes and tendexes and three-dimensional vortexes and tendexes (regions on or outside the horizon where vorticities or tendicities are large). In this paper, using these concepts, we discover a number of previously unknown features of quasinormal modes of Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes. These modes can be classified by a radial quantum number $n$, spheroidal harmonic orders $(l,m)$, and parity, which can be electric $[(-1{)}^l]$ or magnetic $[(-1{)}^{l+1}]$. Among our discoveries are these: (i) There is a near duality between modes of the same $(n,l,m)$: a duality in which the tendex and vortex structures of electric-parity modes are interchanged with the vortex and tendex structures (respectively) of magnetic-parity modes. (ii) This near duality is perfect for the modes’ complex eigenfrequencies (which are well known to be identical) and perfect on the horizon; it is slightly broken in the equatorial plane of a nonspinning hole, and the breaking becomes greater out of the equatorial plane, and greater as the hole is spun up; but even out of the plane for fast-spinning holes, the duality is surprisingly good. (iii) Electric-parity modes can be regarded as generated by three-dimensional tendexes that stick radially out of the horizon. As these “longitudinal,” near-zone tendexes rotate or oscillate, they generate longitudinal-transverse near-zone vortexes and tendexes and outgoing and ingoing gravitational waves. The ingoing waves act back on the longitudinal tendexes, driving them to slide off the horizon, which results in decay of the mode’s strength. (iv) By duality, magnetic-parity modes are driven in this same manner by longitudinal, near-zone vortexes that stick out of the horizon. (v) When visualized, the three-dimensional vortexes and tendexes of a $(l,m)=(2,2)$ mode, and also a (2,1) mode, spiral outward and backward like water from a whirling sprinkler, becoming outgoing gravitational waves. By contrast, a (2,2) mode superposed on a $(2,-2)$ mode, has oscillating horizon vortexes or tendexes that eject three-dimensional vortexes and tendexes, which propagate outward becoming gravitational waves; and so does a (2,0) mode. (vi) For magnetic-parity modes of a Schwarzschild black hole, the perturbative frame-drag field, and hence also the perturbative vortexes and vortex lines, are strictly gauge invariant (unaffected by infinitesimal magnetic-parity changes of time slicing and spatial coordinates). (vii) We have computed the vortex and tendex structures of electric-parity modes of Schwarzschild in two very different gauges and find essentially no discernible differences in their pictorial visualizations. (viii) We have compared the vortex lines, from a numerical-relativity simulation of a black hole binary in its final ringdown stage, with the vortex lines of a (2,2) electric-parity mode of a Kerr black hole with the same spin ($a/M=0.945$) and find remarkably good agreement.