Phase transitions in charged topological-AdS black holes

Abstract

We study the perturbative behaviour of charged topological-AdS black holes. We calculate both analytically and numerically the quasi-normal modes of the electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations. Keeping the charge-to-mass ratio constant, we show that there is a second-order phase transition at a critical temperature at which the mass of the black hole vanishes. We pay special attention to the purely dissipative modes appearing in the spectrum as they behave singularly at the critical point.