PHYSICAL INTERPRETATION OF VACUUM SOLUTIONS OF EINSTEIN EQUATIONS .1. TIME-INDEPENDENT SOLUTIONS

This article is a review of interpretations which have been given to some well known solutions of the vacuum equations. Special attention is paid to those of Schwarzschild, Curzon and Kerr, and it is argued that the bizarre topologies they have been endowed with are physically unrealistic. Among others discussed axe the two-centres solution of Bach and Weyl, the NUT solution, and solutions for an infinite line-mass, both static and rotating.