Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Kerr Metric Black Holes

Nature volume 226, pages 64–65 (1970)Cite this article

Abstract

LYNDEN-BELL has suggested1 that a massive collapsed object may lie at the centre of many galaxies, including our own, and that a continuing flux of matter into such a collapsed object, or “black hole”, may be the source of energy for the non-thermal radiation observed to come from some galactic nuclei. The metric used to describe the geometry of space-time in the vicinity of the collapsed object in this and other papers2 on collapsed objects in astrophysics has been the spherically symmetric Schwarz-schild metric, which is valid only if the collapsed object has zero angular momentum. In fact, one would expect any such collapsed object to possess considerable angular momentum, because a great deal of angular momentum must be lost from a typical galactic nucleus to permit collapse inside the gravitational radius in the first place.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lynden-Bell, D., Nature, 223, 690 (1969).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Salpeter, E. E., Astrophys. J., 140, 1 (1964).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kerr, R. P., Phys. Rev. Lett., 11, 522 (1963).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Boyer, R. H., and Price, T. G., Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., 61, 531 (1965).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Boyer, R. H., and Lindquist, R. W., J. Math. Phys., 8, 265 (1967).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Thorne, K. S., in Proc. Course 47 of the Intern. School of Physics “Enrico Fermi” (Academic Press, in the press).

  7. Bardeen, J. M., and Wagoner, R. V., Astrophys. J. Lett., 158, L65 (1969).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. de Felice, F., Nuovo Cimento, 57B, 351 (1968).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Carter, B., Phys. Rev., 174, 1559 (1968).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 98105

    JAMES M. BARDEEN

Authors
  1. JAMES M. BARDEEN
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

BARDEEN, J. Kerr Metric Black Holes. Nature 226, 64–65 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/226064a0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/226064a0

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing