The Hidden Twin of a Black Hole's Spin ✎ express

Original: "Kerr-NUT Thermodynamics: Misner Strings and Nut Charges"
· Mohamed Tharwat, Adel Awad
arXiv:2608.01152v1 · 2026-08-02 · arXiv non-exclusive · independent analysis · 1 min
A black hole with a special NUT parameter reveals a new conserved quantity, a kind of twin to angular momentum.

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The Kerr-NUT black hole is not just a cosmic vacuum cleaner. It's a solution to Einstein's equations where the hole has mass, rotation, and a strange NUT parameter. This parameter behaves like a magnetic charge for gravity: seemingly invisible, yet it alters the properties of surrounding space.

The NUT charge (named after Newman, Unti, and Tamburino) makes spacetime "twisted"—as if time itself flows not straight but in a spiral.

The authors applied to this hole the thermodynamic approach that worked for ordinary black holes. And they found a new conserved quantity: it is dual to angular momentum. It's like a mirror reflection: angular momentum accounts for rotation, while its twin accounts for something like "hidden rotation" associated with the NUT charge. The quantity always exists, but in thermodynamics it shows up only when the hole actually spins (parameter $a\neq 0$).

The resulting picture is beautiful: together with the two charges ($N_c = cn$ and $n$), all thermodynamic relations (the first law, the Smarr formula, and the Gibbs–Duhem equation) hold flawlessly. Nature seems to hint that every important quantity has its own invisible partner.

The NUT charge can be imagined as a "gravitational magnet"—it doesn't attract iron, but it makes test particles move along unusual trajectories, as if space itself nudges them sideways.

Scientists
Stephen HawkingJacob BekensteinWilliam UnruhFritz ZwickyKarl SchwarzschildJoseph Weber
Concepts
first law of thermodynamics zeroth law of thermodynamics newtons laws Noether's theorem gas constant Carnot's theorem carnot limit kinetic energy electric charge law of conservation of electric charge coulomb constant quantum heat transport newtonian gravity angular momentum energy conservation kerr metric efficiency temperature difference momentum proportionality