General parametrization of higher-dimensional black holes and its application to Einstein-Lovelock theory

Here we have developed the general parametrization for spherically symmetric and asymptotically flat black-hole spacetimes in an arbitrary metric theory of gravity. The parametrization is similar in spirit to the parametrized post-Newtonian approximation, but valid in the whole space outside the event horizon, including the near horizon region. This generalizes the continued-fraction expansion method in terms of a compact radial coordinate suggested by Rezzolla and Zhidenko [Phys. Rev. D 90, 084009 (2014)] for the four-dimensional case. As the first application of our higher-dimensional parametrization we have approximated black-hole solutions of the Einstein-Lovelock theory in various dimensions. This allows one to write down the black-hole solution which depends on many parameters (coupling constants in front of higher curvature terms) in a very compact analytic form, which depends only upon a few parameters of the parametrization. The approximate metric deviates from the exact (but extremely cumbersome) expressions by fractions of one percent even at the first order of the continued-fraction expansion, which is confirmed here by computation of observable quantities, such as quasinormal modes of the black hole.