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  • Open Access

Superrotations are linkages

Ratindranath Akhoury and Arielle Schutz

David Garfinkle

  • Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

  • Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309, USA and Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 124077 – Published 26 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pnt2-1pq9

Abstract

We show that superrotations can be described using the geometric conformal completion method of Penrose. In particular, superrotation charges and fluxes can be described and calculated using the linkage method of Geroch and Winicour. Whether superrotation charges are calculated using the coordinate based Bondi formalism or the geometric Penrose formalism, the fact that the superrotation blows up at a point makes the superrotation charge formally ill-defined. Nonetheless, we show that it can be made well-defined through a regularization procedure devised by Flanagan and Nichols.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 124077– Published 26 December, 2025
  • Received 15 August 2025
  • Accepted 24 November 2025
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