Abstract

LIMA, Marcelo Costa de  and  SOARES, Ivano Damião. The spacetime of a Dirac magnetic monopole. Braz. J. Phys. [online]. 2002, vol.32, n.1, pp. 217-226. ISSN 0103-9733.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0103-97332002000100033.

We construct a spacetime whose only source of curvature is a Dirac magnetic monopole, and whose geometry inherits the structure of lines of singularities of the monopole electromagnetic potentials. The spacetime has the topology S³ × R, is stationary and asymptotically at but not asymptotically Minkowskian, with its at null infinity having the topology of S³. These mild pathologies, as acausality and string structure, allow the spacetime configuration to have a gravitational magnetic mass, which results proportional to the charge m of the monopole. This suggests that the Dirac monopole may be the source of magnetic mass in gravitational configurations, which has no Newtonian analogue. Alsom has the role of a NUT parameter in the metric of the spacetime, suggesting that the charge of the monopole can provide a physical realization of the NUT parameter.