Note on the Kerr Spinning-Particle Metric

Abstract

It is shown that by means of a complex coordinate transformation performed on the monopole or Schwarzschild metric one obtains a new metric (first discovered by Kerr). It has been suggested that this metric be interpreted as that arising from a spinning particle. We wish to suggest a more complicated interpretation, namely that the metric has certain characteristics that correspond to a ring of mass that is rotating about its axis of symmetry. The argument for this interpretation comes from three separate places: (1) the metric appears to have the appropriate multipole structure when analyzed in the manner discussed in the previous paper, (2) in a covariantly defined flat space associated with the metric, the Riemann tensor has a circular singularity, (3) there exists a closely analogous solution of Maxwell's equations that has characteristics of a field due to a rotating ring of charge.