Pair of accelerated black holes in a de Sitter background: The dS C metric

Following the work of Kinnersley and Walker for flat spacetimes, we analyzed the anti-de Sitter C metric in a previous paper. In this paper we study the de Sitter C metric (dS C metric). The C metric with a generic cosmological constant and other extra parameters was introduced by Plebanski and Demianski. When one then sets to zero some of the extra parameters, and works with a positive cosmological constant, one has the dS C metric which has been analyzed and physically interpreted by Podolsky and Griffiths. It describes a pair of accelerated black holes in the dS background with the acceleration being provided (in addition to the cosmological constant) by a strut that pushes away the two black holes or, alternatively, by a string that pulls them. We extend their analysis mainly in four directions. First, we draw the Carter-Penrose diagrams of the massless uncharged dS C metric, of the massive uncharged dS C metric and of the massive charged dS C metric. These diagrams allow us to clearly identify the presence of two dS black holes and to conclude that they cannot interact gravitationally. Second, we reexamine the embedding of the dS C metric in the 5D Minkowski spacetime and we represent the motion of the dS C metric origin in the dS 4-hyperboloid as well as the localization of the strut. Third, we comment on the physical properties of the strut that connects the two black holes. Finally, we find the range of parameters that correspond to nonextreme black holes, extreme black holes, and naked particles.