Analytical quasinormal modes of spherically symmetric black holes in the eikonal regime

Abstract: Quasinormal modes in the high frequency (eikonal) regime can be obtained analytically as the Mashhoon-Will-Schiutz WKB formula is exact in this case. This regime is interesting because of the correspondence between eikonal quasinormal modes and null geodesics, as well as due to existence of potential eikonal instabilities in some theories of gravity. At the same time in a number of studies devoted to quasinormal modes of spherically symmetric black holes this opportunity was omitted. Here we find analytical quasinormal modes of black holes in various alternative and extended theories of gravity in the form of the Schwarzschld eikonal quasinormal modes and added corrections due to deviations from Einstein theory. We also deduce a generic formula for analytical calculations of the eikonal quasinormal modes for the class of asymptotically flat metrics in terms of small deviations from the Schwarzschild geometry.