Zero mass limit of Kerr spacetime is a wormhole

Abstract : We show that, contrary to what is usually claimed in the literature, the zero mass limit of Kerr spacetime is not flat Minkowski space but a spacetime whose geometry is only locally flat. This limiting spacetime, as the Kerr spacetime itself, contains two asymptotic regions and hence cannot be topologically trivial. It also contains a curvature singularity, because the power-law singularity of the Weyl tensor vanishes in the limit but there remains a distributional contribution of the Ricci tensor. This spacetime can be interpreted as a wormhole sourced by a negative tension ring. We also extend the discussion to similarly interpret the zero mass limit of the Kerr–(anti–)de Sitter spacetime.
Keywords :
Document type :
Journal articles
Domain :

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01645539
Contributor : Inspire Hep <>
Submitted on : Thursday, November 23, 2017 - 10:06:36 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, May 5, 2021 - 4:10:27 AM

Citation

Gary W. Gibbons, Mikhail S. Volkov. Zero mass limit of Kerr spacetime is a wormhole. Phys.Rev.D, 2017, 96 (2), pp.024053. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevD.96.024053⟩. ⟨hal-01645539⟩

Record views