Identifying modified theories of gravity using binary black-hole ringdowns

Black-hole spectroscopy, that is, measuring the characteristic frequencies and damping times of different modes in a black-hole ringdown, is a powerful probe for testing deviations from the general theory of relativity (GR). In this work, we present a comprehensive study on its ability to identify deviations from the spectrum of a Kerr black hole in GR. Specifically, we investigate the performance of black hole spectroscopy on a diverse set of theoretically motivated as well as phenomenologically modified spectra. We find that while the signal-to-noise ratio ρRD in the ringdown required to identify a modification to the GR Kerr black hole spectrum depends on the details of the modifications, a modification that introduces ∼1% shift in the fundamental mode frequencies can typically be distinguished with ρ_RD ϵ [150,500]. This range of ρ_RD is feasible with the next-generation detectors, showing a promising science case for black hole spectroscopy.