A Positive-Definite Energy Functional for the Axisymmetric Perturbations of Kerr-Newman Black Holes

We consider the axisymmetric, linear perturbations of Kerr-Newman black holes, allowing for arbitrarily large (but subextremal) angular momentum and electric charge. By exploiting the famous Carter-Robinson identities, developed previously for the proofs of (stationary) black hole uniqueness results, we construct a positive-definite energy functional for these perturbations and establish its conservation for a class of (coupled, gravitational and electromagnetic) solutions to the linearized field equations. Our analysis utilizes the familiar (Hamiltonian) reduction of the field equations (for axisymmetric geometries) to a system of wave map fields coupled to a 2+1-dimensional Lorentzian metric on the relevant quotient 3-manifold. The propagating `dynamical degrees of freedom' of this system are entirely captured by the wave map fields, which take their values in a four dimensional, negatively curved (complex hyperbolic) Riemannian target space whereas the base-space Lorentzian metric is entirely determined, in our setup, by elliptic constraints and gauge conditions.