Linear mode stability of the Kerr-Newman black hole and its quasinormal modes.

We provide strong evidence that, up to 99.999% of extremality, Kerr-Newman black holes (KNBHs) are linear mode stable within Einstein-Maxwell theory. We derive and solve, numerically, a coupled system of two partial differential equations for two gauge invariant fields that describe the most general linear perturbations of a KNBH. We determine the quasinormal mode (QNM) spectrum of the KNBH as a function of its three parameters and find no unstable modes. In addition, we find that the lowest radial overtone QNMs that are connected continuously to the gravitational ℓ=m=2 Schwarzschild QNM dominate the spectrum for all values of the parameter space (m is the azimuthal number of the wave function and ℓ measures the number of nodes along the polar direction). Furthermore, the (lowest radial overtone) QNMs with ℓ=m approach Reω=mΩH(ext) and Imω=0 at extremality; this is a universal property for any field of arbitrary spin |s|≤2 propagating on a KNBH background (ω is the wave frequency and ΩH(ext) the black hole angular velocity at extremality). We compare our results with available perturbative results in the small charge or small rotation regimes and find good agreement.