Classification of hypercylindrical spacetimes with momentum flow

Abstract

For the five-dimensional spacetimes whose four-dimensional sections are static, spherically symmetric (SO(3)), and flat asymptotically, we study the behavior of Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass, tension, and momentum densities characterizing such asymptotically hypercylindrical metrics under boosts along the cylindrical axis. For such stringlike metrics two boost-invariant quantities are found, which are a sort of ‘‘string rest mass squared’’ and the sum of mass and tension densities. Analogous to the case of a moving point particle, we show that the asymptotically hypercylindrical geometries can be classified into three types depending on the value of the string rest mass squared, namely, ‘‘ordinary string’’, ‘‘null string’’ and ‘‘tachyonlike string’’ geometries. This asymptotic analysis shows that the extraordinary metrics reported recently by some of the authors belong to the tachyonlike string. Consequently, it is likely that such extraordinary solutions are the final states of tachyonic matter collapse. We also report two new vacuum solutions which belong to the null string and the tachyonlike string, respectively.