Quasinormal ringing of de Sitter braneworlds

A bstract Compared with the Poincaré braneworld, the de Sitter (dS) braneworld aligns more closely with the present universe characterized by a small but finite cosmological constant. To explore the quasinormal ringing properties within the dS brane scenario, we investigate the gravitational perturbations in both thin and thick dS brane configurations. Analysis of the perturbation equations reveals that the effective potential along the extra dimension exhibits the shape of Pöschl-Teller potential, asymptotically approaching a constant value (mass gap) at infinity. In particular, this mass gap can be reduced. And analytical calculations further indicate that the gravitational perturbations, apart from the zero mode, possess a series of discrete, purely imaginary quasinormal modes in the late stages. This result implies that these perturbations decay without oscillation over time. The analytical findings also demonstrate that the brane structure primarily determines the distribution of the quasinormal spectrum while preserving the purely imaginary nature of the quasinormal frequencies. Subsequently, we further simulate the gravitational wave signal by numerically evolving the perturbation equations, which yield late-stage results consistent with the analytical predictions. Interestingly, these quasinormal modes carry information about the cosmological constant on the brane, which provides a potential new pathway for the study of cosmology in the dS brane scenario.