Removal of Closed Timelike Curves in Kerr-Newman Spacetime

Abstract

A simple yet systematic new algorithm to investigate the global structure of Kerr-Newman spacetime is suggested. Namely, the global structure of θ=const. timelike submanifolds of Kerr-Newman metric are studied by introducing a new time coordinate slightly different from the usual Boyer-Lindquist time coordinate. In addition, it is demonstrated that the possible causality violation thus far regarded to occur near the ring singularity via the development of closed timelike curves there is not really an unavoidable pathology which has plagued the Kerr-Newman solution but simply a gauge (coordinate) artifact as it disappears upon transforming from Boyer-Lindquist to the new time coordinate. This last point appears to lend support to the fact that, indeed, the Kerr-Newman spacetime is a legitimate solution to represent the interior as well as the exterior regions of a rotating, charged black hole spacetime.