STATIC AND STATIONARY SOLUTIONS OF THE EINSTEIN-MAXWELL EQUATIONS

The Weyl axially symmetric electrovac formalism for coincident gravitational and electrostatic equipotential surfaces is used to generate charged versions of some axially symmetric vacuum fields. The metric for two separated charged Curzon particles held in equilibrium by a strut is found and the condition for the removal of the strut is discussed. Kinnersley transformations applied to the two-particle metric yield spin but line singularities invariably appear along the symmetry axis and the metric is asymptotically NUT-like. It is shown that any Kinnersley transformation applied to a static axially symmetric asymptotically flat vacuum metric generates another asymptotically flat metric only if the latter is static. Moreover, the transformed metric is always undercharged (q2<m2) if it is asymptotically flat. A necessary and sufficient condition for asymptotic flatness in terms of the relevant parameters is found. A generalization of the Kinnersley transformation scheme is presented and illustrated by an example. © 1979 Plenum Publishing Corporation.