Master equations and stability of Einstein-Maxwell-scalar black holes

We derive master equations for linear perturbations in Einstein-Maxwell scalar theory, for any spacetime dimension D and any background with a maximally symmetric n = (D - 2)-dimensional spatial component. This is done by expressing all fluctuations analytically in terms of several master scalars. The resulting master equations are Klein-Gordon equations, with non-derivative couplings given by a potential matrix of size 3, 2 and 1 for the scalar, vector and tensor sectors respectively. Furthermore, these potential matrices turn out to be symmetric, and positivity of the eigenvalues is sufficient (though not necessary) for linear stability of the background under consideration. In general these equations cannot be fully decoupled, only in specific cases such as Reissner-Nordstrom, where we reproduce the Kodama-Ishibashi master equations. Finally we use this to prove stability in the vector sector of the GMGHS black hole and of Einstein-scalar theories in general.