Scalar perturbations around rotating regular black holes and wormholes: quasi-normal modes, ergoregion instability and superradiance

Abstract: We study scalar test-field perturbations on top of a Kerr--black-bounce background, i.e. a family of rotating regular black holes and/or rotating traversable wormholes that can mimic Kerr black holes. We compute the quasi-normal modes for a massless field in both the regular black holes and wormhole branches, confirming the stability of the former and identifying a set of growing modes that renders the latter unstable. We further compute the superradiance amplification factors, for massless and massive fields, in the regular black hole branch, confirming that these objects superradiate, though to a lesser degree than the corresponding Kerr black holes.