THE PARAMETERS OF THE LEWIS METRIC FOR THE WEYL CLASS

We provide physical interpretation for the four parameters of the stat ionary Lewis metric restricted to the Weyl class. Matching this spacet ime to a completely anisotropic, rigidly rotating, fluid cylinder, we obtain from the junction conditions that one of these parameters is pr oportional to the vorticity of the source. From the Newtonian approxim ation a second parameter is found to be proportional to the energy per unit of length. The remaining two parameters may be associated to a g ravitational analog of the Aharanov-Bohm effect. We prove, using the C artan scalars, that the Weyl class metric and static Levi-Civita metri c are locally equivalent, i.e., indistinguishable in terms of its curv ature.