Gravitational multi-soliton solutions on flat space

Abstract

It is well known that, for even n, the n-soliton solution on the Minkowski seed, constructed using the inverse-scattering method (ISM) of Belinski and Zakharov (BZ), is the multi-Kerr-NUT solution. We show that, for odd n, the natural seed to use is the Euclidean space with two manifest translational symmetries, and the n-soliton solution is the accelerating multi-Kerr-NUT solution. We thus define the n-soliton solution on flat space for any positive integer n. It admits both Lorentzian and Euclidean sections. In the latter section, we find that a number, say m, of solitons can be eliminated in a non-trivial way by appropriately fixing their corresponding so-called BZ parameters. The resulting solutions, which may split into separate classes, are collectively denoted as [n-m]-soliton solutions on flat space. We then carry out a systematic study of the n- and [n-m]-soliton solutions on flat space. This includes, in particular, an explicit presentation of their ISM construction, an analysis of their local geometries, and a classification of all separate classes of solutions they form. We also show how even-soliton solutions on the seeds of the collinearly centred Gibbons-Hawking and Taub-NUT arise from these solutions.