Ergoregions in magnetized black hole spacetimes

asymptotically timelike Killing field charged rotating black holes ergoregion Ernst's procedure Kerr-Newman space time magnetized black hole Melvin metric toroidal ergoregion

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Electromagnetic theory (general) (78A25) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Einstein-Maxwell equations (83C22) Black holes (83C57)

Abstract: The spacetimes obtained by Ernst's procedure for appending an external magnetic field

B

to a seed Kerr-Newman black hole are commonly believed to be asymptotic to the static Melvin solution. We show that this is not in general true. Unless the electric charge of the black hole satisfies

Q = j B (1 + 1 / 4 j^{2} B^{4})

, where

j

is the angular momentum of the original seed solution, an ergoregion extends all the way from the black hole horizon to infinity. We give a self-contained account of the solution-generating procedure, including including explicit formulae for the metric and the vector potential. In the case when

Q = j B (1 + 1 / 4 j^{2} B^{4})

, we show that there is an arbitrariness in the choice of asymptotically timelike Killing field

K_{O} m e g a = p a r t i a l / p a r t i a l t + O m e g a p a r t i a l / p a r t i a l p h i

, because there is no canonical choice of

O m e g a

. For one choice,

O m e g a = O m e g a_{s}

, the metric is asymptotically static, and there is an ergoregion confined to the neighbourhood of the horizon. On the other hand, by choosing

O m e g a = O m e g a_{H}

, so that

K_{O m e g a_{H}}

is co-rotating with the horizon, then for sufficiently large

B

numerical studies indicate there is no ergoregion at all. For smaller values, in a range

B_{-} < B < B_{+}

, there is a toroidal ergoregion outside and disjoint from the horizon. If

B l e B_{-}

this ergoregion expands all the way to infinity in a cylindrical region near to the rotation axis. For black holes whose size is small compared to the Melvin radius 2/B, we recover Wald's result that it is energetically favourable for the hole to acquire a charge

2 j B

.

Review text

This article considers the spacetimes generated by applying Ernst's procedure to add an external magnetic field to the Kerr-Newman space time of charged rotating black holes. Usually it is assumed that they are asymptotic to the Melvin metric. This paper shows that this is not always the case. When the charge, angular momentum and magnetic field satisfy certain conditions, there exists an ergoregion that extends all the way from the black hole to infinity. Also, an ambiguity in the choice of asymptotically timelike Killing field can occur. For certain choices the metric is asymptotically static, with an ergoregion confined close to the horizon. With other choices, for sufficiently large magnetic field there is no ergoregion at all, and for smaller values a toroidal ergoregion develops.

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