Rotating Black Holes: Separable Wave Equations for Gravitational and Electromagnetic Perturbations

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Abstract
Separable wave equations with source terms are presented for electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations of an uncharged, rotating black hole. These equations describe the radiative field completely, and also part of the nonradiative field. Nontrivial, source-free, stationary perturbations are shown not to exist. The barrier integral governing synchrotron radiation from particles in circular orbits is shown to be the same as for scalar radiation. Future applications (stability of rotating black holes, "spin-down," superradiant scattering, floating orbits) are outlined.