Does Charge Contribute to the Frame Dragging of Spacetime?

Abstract

Electrically charged systems bound by a strong gravitational force can sustain a huge amount of electric charge (up to 10^20C) against Coulomb repulsion. General relativistically such systems form a stable hydrostatic configuration both in the non-rotating and rotating cases. Here we study the effects of electric charge (electric energy density) on the spacetime outside a rotating electrically charged system bound by a strong gravitational force. In particular we investigate the effect of charge density on frame-dragging of spacetime in the exterior region. Using the coupled Einstein-Maxwell equations it is found that in the slow rotation approximation charge accumulations not only acts like an additional mass, thus modifying the spherically symmetric part of the spacetime, the electric charge also contributes directly to the dragging of spacetime. A modified Lense-Thirring formula for the spacetime frame dragging frequency is obtained.