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  • Letter
  • Open Access
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Black hole ringdown spectroscopy of curvature-coupled scalar and pseudoscalar fields

Adrian Ka-Wai Chung1,2,* and Nicolás Yunes2

  • 1DAMTP, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WA, United Kingdom
  • 2Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe and Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

  • *Contact author: kwc43@cam.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. D 114, L021505 – Published 28 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2ctd-mgb6

Abstract

Remnant black holes formed in compact binary coalescences provide a clean setting for probing additional fields coupled to gravity. By analyzing the ringdown signals of the loudest LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA binary-black hole mergers, we search for massless curvature-coupled (pseudo)scalar fields arising in extensions to general relativity. We find no evidence for such fields and place 90% credible upper limits on the coupling length scale, ℓ≲(25–45) km, corresponding to scales significantly below the horizons of the remnant black holes. These results include the first gravitational-wave constraint on an axidilaton-type coupling. By isolating the ringdown phase and performing extensive robustness checks, our analysis provides a complementary observational probe to existing full-waveform constraints. As the gravitational-wave catalog expands, black hole ringdown spectroscopy will enable increasingly sensitive probes of gravity and additional fields using astrophysical black holes.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, L021505– Published 28 July, 2026
  • Received 20 June 2025
  • Accepted 12 June 2026
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