Accelerating NUT black holes

TL;DR

This paper introduces and analyzes a class of exact solutions describing accelerating black holes with a NUT parameter, clarifying their geometric structure, physical properties, and global spacetime features.

Contribution

The paper provides a new, more convenient metric form for accelerating NUT black holes, revealing their global structure and physical properties, and clarifies their relation to known spacetimes.

Findings

The solutions are of algebraically general type I, not type D.

No curvature singularities occur when the NUT parameter is nonzero.

The spacetime contains pairs of accelerating black holes with rotating cosmic strings or struts.

Abstract

We present and analyze a class of exact spacetimes which describe accelerating black holes with a NUT parameter. First, we verify that the intricate metric found by Chng, Mann and Stelea in 2006 indeed solves Einstein's vacuum field equations of General Relativity. We explicitly calculate all components of the Weyl tensor and determine its algebraic structure. As it turns out, it is actually of algebraically general type I with four distinct principal null directions. It explains why this class of solutions has not been (and could not be) found within the large Plebanski-Demianski family of type D spacetimes. Then we transform the solution into a much more convenient metric form which explicitly depends on three physical parameters: mass, acceleration, and the NUT parameter. These parameters can independently be set to zero, recovering thus the well-known spacetimes in standard coordinates, namely the C-metric, the Taub-NUT metric, the Schwarzschild metric, and flat Minkowski space. Using this new metric, we investigate physical and geometrical properties of such accelerating NUT black holes. In particular, we localize and study four Killing horizons (two black-hole plus two acceleration) and investigate the curvature. Employing the scalar invariants we prove that there are no curvature singularities whenever the NUT parameter is nonzero. We identify asymptotically flat regions and relate them to conformal infinities. This leads to a complete understanding of the global structure. The boost-rotation metric form reveals that there is actually a pair of such black holes. They uniformly accelerate in opposite directions due to the action of rotating cosmic strings or struts located along the corresponding two axes. Rotation of these sources is directly related to the NUT parameter. In their vicinity there are pathological regions with closed timelike curves.