Black Hole Memory Burden and its Signatures in Gravitational Waves from Mergers

arXiv:2607.03560 · gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, hep-ph, hep-th · Submitted 2026-07-03 · Read on arXiv

Gia Dvali, Michael Zantedeschi, Sebastian Zell

gr-qc, astro-ph.CO, hep-ph, hep-th

Submitted: 2026-07-03

Comments: 16 pages, 2 figures

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: Swift memory burden (MB) implies that the information stored in a black hole (BH) can modify its classical dynamics when the BH is perturbed.

Terminology

Abstract

Swift memory burden (MB) implies that the information stored in a black hole (BH) can modify its classical dynamics when the BH is perturbed. This influences the gravitational waves (GWs) emitted during BH mergers. In this paper, we investigate how the BH memory load is determined by the features of the collapsing source. We show that the memory load can vastly exceed the information content of its progenitor. An extreme example is a BH formed in a two-particle collision, which exhibits maximal MB. We then derive bounds for BHs formed through stellar collapse and examine the impact of swift MB on BH quasinormal modes, quantifying the MB-induced frequency shift of GWs. These findings imply that GW observations probe the fundamental mechanisms of BH information storage as well as their formation history.

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