Taub-NUT as Bertrand spacetime with magnetic fields (Q508135)

This paper further elucidates the enigmatic Taub-NUT metric, a metric once described as ``a counterexample to almost anything'' (C. W. Misner, 1967). In particular, it studies Euclidean Taub-NUT metric and relates it, through its symmetries, to a the Euclidean Bertrand metric with magnetic monopoles and dipoles, and, in the process, it allows the understanding of both. The paper's outline is as follows. After a brief introduction, conserved quantities are considered using both a dynamical systems description of the Taub-NUT metric and a Holten algorithm description. Next Bertrand spacetimes with magnetic fields are described together with their Kepler-oscillator duality. The Taub-NUT metric is then derived from the self-dual Bianchi type-IX metric described by the Darboux-Halphen system. A discussion follows of curvature, anti-self-duality, and topological invariants. The Taub-NUT metric is interpreted as a gravitational instanton, allowing its study as an integrable system. An easy derivation and comparison between the spatial Killing-Yano tensors deduced from first integrals and the corresponding hyper-Kähler structure is given together with a verification of the existence of a graded Lie algebra structure via Schouten-Nijenhuis brackets. Researchers in both general relativity and string theory will find this article enlightening.