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Dynamical tidal Love numbers of black holes under generic perturbations: Connecting black hole perturbation theory with effective field theory

Sumanta Chakraborty1,*, M. V. S Saketh2,3,†, Tanja Hinderer4,‡, and Jan Steinhoff2,§

  • *Contact author: tpsc@iacs.res.in
  • †Contact author: venkata.saketh@icts.res.in
  • ‡Contact author: t.p.hinderer@uu.nl
  • §Contact author: jan.steinhoff@aei.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 064011 – Published 4 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lfq4-49k1

Abstract

The foundation for modeling the coupling of the internal structure of compact objects in binary systems to their dynamics and emitted gravitational waves is a systematic effective field theory (EFT) framework, where each compact object is replaced by a worldline endowed with a set of internal degrees of freedom. These degrees of freedom encode finite-size effects and thereby distinguish between different classes of compact objects. Among finite-size effects, tidal interactions play a central role, as they are associated to various kinds of deformations of a body under the influence of external tidal fields. In this work, we analyze the dynamical tidal response of Kerr black holes to generic-spin perturbations, focusing primarily on the scalar and gravitational cases, and working to linear order in frequency. We establish an EFT description of the perturbed black hole that accounts for the couplings between the spin, gravitoelectric and -magnetic tidal fields. We match this to wavelike solutions to the full black hole perturbation equations in order to determine the tidal response coefficients. In particular, we obtain the dynamical Love number, which appears at linear order in frequency for spinning black holes, and derive an approximate expression for the dynamical tidal response, including both dissipative and conservative pieces. We also examine several technical subtleties that arise in the matching procedure, with special emphasis on the mixing of multipolar modes induced by the spin of the compact object, which proves to be essential for a consistent treatment.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 064011– Published 4 September, 2026
  • Received 17 May 2026
  • Accepted 11 August 2026
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