Breit-Wigner resonances and the quasinormal modes of anti–de Sitter black holes

We show that the theory of Breit-Wigner resonances can be used as an efficient numerical tool to compute black hole quasinormal modes. For illustration, we focus on the Schwarzschild anti--de Sitter (SAdS) spacetime. The resonance method is better suited to small SAdS black holes than the traditional series expansion method, allowing us to confirm that the damping time scale of small SAdS black holes for scalar and gravitational fields is proportional to r₊^-2l-2, where r₊ is the horizon radius. The proportionality coefficients are in good agreement with analytic calculations. We also examine the eikonal limit of SAdS quasinormal modes, confirming quantitatively Festuccia and Liu's [arXiv:0811.1033] prediction of the existence of very long-lived modes. Our results are particularly relevant for the AdS/CFT correspondence, since long-lived modes presumably dominate the decay time scale of the perturbations.