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Radial scalar product for Kerr quasinormal modes

Lionel T. London

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 044008 – Published 4 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vy3q-nx3w

Abstract

A scalar product for quasinormal mode solutions to Teukolsky’s homogeneous radial equation is presented. Evaluation of this scalar product can be performed either by direct integration, or by evaluation of a confluent hypergeometric functions. The related scalar product will be useful for better understanding analytic solutions to Teukolsky’s radial equation, particularly the quasinormal modes, their potential spatial completeness, and whether the quasinormal mode overtone excitations may be estimated by spectral decomposition rather than fitting. With that motivation, the scalar product is applied to confluent Heun polynomials where it is used to derive their peculiar orthogonality and eigenvalue properties. A potentially new relationship is derived between the confluent Heun polynomials’ scalar products and eigenvalues. Using these results, it is shown for the first time that Teukolsky’s radial equation (and perhaps similar confluent Heun equations) are, in principle, exactly tridiagonalizable. To this end, “canonical” confluent Heun polynomials are conjectured.

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Natural polynomials for Kerr quasinormal modes

Lionel London and Michelle Foucoin
Phys. Rev. D 113, 044009 (2026)

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 044008– Published 4 February, 2026
  • Received 2 January 2024
  • Accepted 17 December 2025
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