nLab
Kerr spacetime

Idea

The Kerr spacetime(s) is a (family of) certain Lorentzian manifolds / spacetimes. The Kerr spacetime describes the ambient vacuum spacetime of a spherically symmetric rotating mass density, it can be extended in a way that this mass density degenerates to a singularity of spatial radius zero. This mathematical idealization is often said to describe a rotating black hole.

The Kerr spacetimes are parametrized by two parameters $m$ and $a$ that have the physical interpretation of mass and angular momentum per unit mass respectively, of the rotating object they describe. In the degenerate case of a = 0 the Kerr spacetimes reduce to the Schwartzschild spacetime?s.

Abstract

The definition states the components of the metric tensor in a specific coordinate system, the Boyer-Lindquist coordinates, and compares those to the Minkowski and Schwartzschild metrics. Some properties can be read off directly from the metric tensor, this is done in the properties paragraph.

Definition

The simplest description of the Kerr metric is by using spherical coordinates $r,\varphi ,\theta$ on the “space” ${ℝ}^3$ and a time coordinate $t\in ℝ$. In the context of the Kerr metric these coordinates are called Boyer-Lindquist coordinates.

The Kerr metric has two real parameters $m,a\ge 0$.

We define two functions mainly as an abbreviation:

$${\rho }^2=r^2+a^2{\cos }^2(\theta )$$\rho^2 = r^2 + a^2 \cos^2(\theta )

$$▵=r^2-2mr+a^2$$\triangle = r^2 - 2 m r + a^2

The following table lists the components of the metric of Minkowski, Schwartzschild and Kerr spacetimes respectivly using the canonical coordinates and the Boyer-Lindquist coordinates for the Kerr spacetime:

metric	Minkowski	Schwartzschild	Kerr
$g_{\mathrm{tt}}$	-1	$-1+2\frac{m}{r}$	$-1+2\frac{\mathrm{mr}}{{\rho }^2}$
$g_{\mathrm{rr}}$	+1	$\frac{r}{r-2m}$	$\frac{{\rho }^2}{▵}$
$g_{\theta \theta }$	$r^2$	$r^2$	${\rho }^2$
$g_{\varphi \varphi }$	$r^2{\sin }^2(\theta )$	$r^2{\sin }^2(\theta )$	$(r^2+a^2+\frac{2mr{a}^2{\sin }^2(\theta )}{{\rho }^2}){\sin }^2\theta$
$g_{\mathrm{ij}}$ $i\ne j$	all zero	all zero	all zero except $g_{t\varphi }=g_{\varphi t}=-\frac{2mra{\sin }^2(\theta )}{{\rho }^2}$

One gets the Kerr-Newman metric? for an electrically charged source with charge $e$ by replacing the definition of $▵$ with

$$▵=r^2-2mr+a^2+e^2$$\triangle = r^2 - 2 m r + a^2 + e^2

The family of Kerr spacetimes is classified by the relation of the parameters $a$ and $m$:

• $0=a$ gives Schwartzschild spacetime

• $0<a^2<m^2$ gives slowly rotating Kerr spacetime (slow Kerr)

• $a^2=m^2$ gives extreme Kerr spacetime and

• $m^2<a^2$ gives rapidly rotating Kerr spacetime (fast Kerr)

Properties

Direct Consequences from the Definition

There are several coordinate singularities, inlcuding the z-axis (where $\sin (\theta )=0$) and where $\rho =0$ and $▵=0$. Points where $▵=0$ define the horizons of Kerr spacetime.

Both ${\partial }_t$ and ${\partial }_{\varphi }$ are Killing vector fields, expressing the time invariance and the axial symmetry of the model respectively. Combining the sign changes $t\to -t,\varphi \to -\varphi$ gives an isometry: Letting time running backwards reverses the rotation.

Kerr spacetime is asymptotically flat, that is the Kerr metric approximates the Minkowski metric for large $r$.

Boyer-Lindquist Blocks

The Boyer-Lindquist coordinates are defined on a subset of ${ℝ}^2\times {𝒮}^2$ with $t,r$ defined on a copy of $ℝ$ respectively (actually $r$ is not supposed to take negative values, this definition is for convenience only). There are three subsets where the coordinates fail:

1. The horizon H where $▵=0$.

2. The ring singularity $\Sigma$ where ${\rho }^2=0$

3. The axis A where $\sin (\theta )=0$.

Definition

The Boyer-Lindquist blocks I, II, III are the following open subsets of ${ℝ}^2\times {𝒮}^2-\Sigma$:

1. For slow Kerr, there are two horizons at $r_{\pm }$,

   $$I:r>r_{+}$$I: r \gt r_+

$$\mathrm{II}:r_{-}<r<r_{+}$$II: r_- \lt r \lt r_+

$$\mathrm{III}:r<r_{-}$$III: r \lt r_-

1. For extreme Kerr, there is a single horizon at $r=m$,

   $$I:r>m$$I: r \gt m

$$\mathrm{III}:r<m$$III: r \lt m

1. For fast Kerr, there is no horizon and ${ℝ}^2\times {𝒮}^2-\Sigma$ can be considered as one block I = III.

Block I is also called the Kerr exterior and can be visualized as close to the Newtonian concept of space and time with a central force field.

Theorem

Causality of I and II The Boyer-Lindquist blocks I and II are causal.

For a definition of causality see spacetime.

Theorem

Noncausality of III The Boyer-Lindquist block III is vicious, that is for any two events $p,q$ in III there is a timelike future-pointing curve in III from p to q.

Higher symmetries

The Kerr spactime admits an extra Killing tensor and Killing-Yano tensor (…) See for instance (JL).

Examples

…

References

• Wikipedia on the Kerr spacetime.

Most textbooks about General Relativity have chapter about the Kerr spacetime, here is a monograph that specializes on the topic:

• Barrett O’Neill, The geometry of Kerr black holes. (ZMATH entry)

• Jacek Jezierski, Maciej Łukasik, Conformal Yano-Killing tensor for the Kerr metric and conserved quantities (arXiv:gr-qc/0510058)