The Barriola-Vilenkin global monopoles are topological defects predicted by certain grand unified theories and have been extensively studied for their astrophysical and cosmological implications, including their distinctive spacetime geometry and characteristic gravitational lensing effects. Despite this interest, an exact solution for a global monopole remains elusive, with research largely confined to approximations of the static, spherically symmetric case. This paper addresses the fundamental question of whether a rotating global monopole can exist as a solution to the coupled Einstein-scalar field equations. We first prove that metrics generated by applying the Newman-Janis algorithm to the static monopole are inconsistent with the scalar field’s equation of motion. Furthermore, we perform an asymptotic analysis for general static, axially symmetric spacetimes and establish that the only such solution that is regular at large distances is the spherically symmetric one. These results lead to the conclusion that the Barriola-Vilenkin global monopoles are incompatible with rotating spacetime within the framework of Einstein’s general relativity.

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• Cosmic strings & domain walls
• Dark matter
• General relativity
• Gravitational lenses