Paper detail

On the physical interpretation of the delta=2 Tomimatsu-Sato solution

The physical properties of the Tomimatsu-Sato delta=2 spacetime are analyzed, with emphasis on the issues of the negative mass distribution in this spacetime and the origin of a massless ring singularity which are treated with the aid of an equatorially asymmetric two-body configuration arising within the framework of the analytically extended double-Kerr solution. As a by-product of this analysis it is proved analytically that the Kerr spacetime with negative mass always has a massless naked ring singularity off the symmetry axis accompanied by a region with closed timelike curves, and it is also pointed out that the Boyer-Lindquist coordinates in that case should be introduced in a different manner than in the case of the Kerr solution with positive mass.