On the interpretation of cylindrically symmetric Levi-Civita spacetime for 0<sigma<infinity

Abstract

We study Levi-Civita metric for values of its sigma parameter in the range 0< sigma<infinity. We show that the value sigma=1/2 makes the axial and angular coordinates switch meaning. We present its geodesics and a physical source satisfying the energy conditions for all the range of sigma. This source allows us to obtain an energy per unit length which agrees with the behaviour of the geodesics and the fact that the solution has no event horizon.

14 pages Latex, to appear in Class. Quantum Grav