Rotating regular black holes and other compact objects with a Tolman type potential as a regular interior for the Kerr metric

Abstract

We obtain a new class of stationary axisymmetric spacetimes by using the G\"urses-G\"ursey metric with an appropriate mass function in order to generate a rotating core of matter that may be smoothly matched to the exterior Kerr metric. The same stationary spacetimes may be obtained by applying a slightly modified version of the Newman-Janis algorithm to a nonrotating spherically symmetric seed metric. The starting spherically symmetric configuration represents a nonisotropic de-Sitter type fluid whose radial pressure $p_r$ satisfies an state equation of the form $p_r=-\rho$, where the energy density $\rho$ is chosen to be the Tolman type-VII energy density [R. C. Tolman, Phys. Rev. {\bf 55}, 364 (1939)]. The resulting rotating metric is then smoothly matched to the exterior Kerr metric, and the main properties of the obtained geometries are investigated. All the solutions considered in the present study are regular in the sense they are free of curvature singularities. Depending on the relative values of the total mass $m$ and rotation parameter $a$, the resulting stationary spacetimes represent different kinds of rotating compact objects such as regular black holes, extremal regular black holes, and regular starlike configurations.