Thermodynamics of Taub-NUT and Plebanski solutions

Abstract

We observe the parallel between the null Killing vector on the horizon and degenerate Killing vectors at both north and south poles in Kerr-Taub-NUT and general Plebanski solutions. This suggests a correspondence between the pairs of the angular momentum/velocity and the NUT charge/potential. We treat the time as a real line such that the Misner strings are physical. We find that the NUT charge spreads along the Misner strings, analogous to that the mass in the Schwarzschild black hole sits at its spacetime singularity. We develop procedures to calculate all the thermodynamic quantities and we find that the results are consistent with the first law (Wald formalism), the Euclidean action and the Smarr relation. We also apply the Wald formalism, the Euclidean action approach, and the (generalized) Komar integration to the electric and magnetic black holes in a class of EMD theories, and also to boosted black strings and Kaluza-Klein monopoles in five dimensions, to gain better understandings of how to deal with the subtleties associated with Dirac and Misner strings.