On quasi-normal modes and the AdS5/CFT4 correspondence

We discuss the quasi-normal modes of massive scalar perturbations of black holes in AdS5 in conjunction with the AdS/CFT correspondence. On the gravity side, we solve the wave equation and obtain an expression for the asymptotic form of quasi-normal frequencies. We then show that these expressions agree with those obtained from a CFT defined on R×S3 in a certain scaling limit, by identifying Euclidean time with one of the periodic coordinates. This generalizes known exact results in three dimensions (BTZ black hole). As a by-product, we derive the standard energy quantization condition in AdS by a simple monodromy argument in complexified AdS space. This argument relies on an unphysical singularity.