Scattering and absorption of massless scalar waves by a ModMax black hole

Abstract: ModMax electrodynamics is a remarkable example of nonlinear electrodynamics that preserves both conformal and duality invariance. When coupled to General Relativity, the resulting black hole solutions introduce a tunable nonlinearity parameter that effectively screens the electromagnetic charge. We study the scattering and absorption of massless scalar waves by a ModMax black hole by applying the partial waves method. We also compute some well-known analytical approximations for the scattering and absorption cross sections and contrast them with the full numerical solution. Our results adequately reproduce those of Maxwell electrodynamics in the appropriate limit and illustrate the effect of the charge screening in ModMax electrodynamics.