Asymptotic quasinormal frequencies of d-dimensional Schwarzschild black holes

We determine the quasinormal frequencies for all gravitational perturbations of the d-dimensional Schwarzschild black hole, in the infinite damping limit. Using the potentials for gravitational perturbations derived recently by Ishibashi and Kodama, we show that in all cases the asymptotic real part of the frequency is proportional to the Hawking temperature with a coefficient of log 3. Via the correspondence principle, this leads directly to an equally spaced entropy spectrum. We comment on the possible implications for the spacing of eigenvalues of the Virasoro generator in the associated near-horizon conformal algebra. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.