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This paper seems to suggest that the interior metric for a black hole in particular (a.k.a not a different kind of spherically symmetric non-rotating body) is just the exterior Schwarzschild metric but with the $t$ and $r$ coordinates switched. But this doesn’t seem right because the interior metric should really look more like the interior Schwarzschild metric. Am I missing something important here?

Here is the equation: $$\mathrm{d}s^2=-\left(\frac{2M}{t}-1\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}t^2+\left(\frac{2M}{t}-1\right)\mathrm{d}r^2+t^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2.$$

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This is a weird way of phrasing, but it seems about right. The interior metric for a Schwarzschild black hole can be written as $$\mathrm{d}s^2=-\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}\right)\mathrm{d}t^2+\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}r^2+r^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2,$$ where we are using Schwarzschild coordinates. In these coordinates, the singularity is located at $r=0$. However, there is something odd: since $r<2M$, the $t$ coordinate is spacelike and the $r$ coordinate is timelike, so they don't have their usual interpretations.

To make the expression look more natural, we can then write $$\mathrm{d}s^2=\left(\frac{2M}{r}-1\right)\mathrm{d}t^2-\left(\frac{2M}{r}-1\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}r^2+r^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2,$$ which doesn't change anything. The metric is still the same, and so are the coordinates.

Since we usually like to use the notation $t$ for a time coordinate and $r$ for a spatial coordinate, let us define new coordinates $t'$ and $r'$ by $$t = r' \quad \text{and} \quad r = t'.$$ Using these coordinates, the metric becomes $$\mathrm{d}s^2=\left(\frac{2M}{t'}-1\right)\mathrm{d}r'^2-\left(\frac{2M}{t'}-1\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}t'^2+t'^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2.$$

We usually write the time coordinate first, so we finally get $$\mathrm{d}s^2=-\left(\frac{2M}{t'}-1\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}t'^2+\left(\frac{2M}{t'}-1\right)\mathrm{d}r'^2+t'^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2.$$

Notice that Birkhoff's theorem ensures the only possible solution is the Schwarzschild solution, since the spacetime is in vacuum and it is spherically symmetric.

Alternative Derivation Using Interior Solutions

Alternatively, we can obtain the solution using interior solutions. In this case, the solution is the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff solution. We take the stress tensor to be a perfect fluid and the equations are \begin{gather} \mathrm{d}s^2=-e^{2\phi(r)}\mathrm{d}t^2+\left(1-\frac{2m(r)}{r}\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}r^2+r^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2, \\ \frac{\mathrm{d} m}{\mathrm{d} r} = 4 \pi \rho(r) r^2, \\ \frac{\mathrm{d} P}{\mathrm{d} r} = - (P(r) + \rho(r))\frac{4 \pi P(r) r^3 + m(r)}{r[r-2m(r)]}, \\ \frac{\mathrm{d} \phi}{\mathrm{d} r} = \frac{4 \pi P(r) r^3 + m(r)}{r[r-2m(r)]}. \end{gather}

Let us solve each of these equations one by one. Since the interior is made of vacuum, we know already that $\rho(r) = P(r) = 0$. First we solve the equation for $m$. At the boundary $r=R$ we need to have $m(R) = M$, but the equation for $m$ is simply $$\frac{\mathrm{d} m}{\mathrm{d} r} = 0,$$ since $\rho = 0$. Hence, we conclude $m(r) = M$ for all $r$. This is unusual and singular at the origin, but it is the only possible solution that matches the exterior solution.

The equation for pressure is trivial.

The equation for $\phi$ then becomes $$\frac{\mathrm{d} \phi}{\mathrm{d} r} = \frac{M}{r[r-2M]},$$ which can be solved with the condition $e^{2\phi(R)} = \frac{1}{2}\log\left(1 - \frac{2M}{R}\right)$ (necessary to match the exterior Schwarzschild solution) to yield $$e^{2\phi(r)} = 1 - \frac{2M}{r}.$$

Plugging these expressions for $m$ and $\phi$ in the TOV metric, you get back $$\mathrm{d}s^2=-\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}\right)\mathrm{d}t^2+\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}\right)^{-1}\mathrm{d}r^2+r^2\mathrm{d}\Omega^2,$$ as expected. And then you can proceed with the argument in the beginning of the question.

There is a caveat: technically these coordinates are awful to study anything very close to the event horizon, and notice the expressions would have led to terrible results if I had used the correct value of $R = 2M$. However, you can understand that this derivation assumes we are working only outside of the black hole, or matching to a Schwarzschild solution that holds down to $R = 2M - \epsilon$ or something. This is an important caveat, and a better derivation for this result is definitely Birkhoff's theorem.

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  • $\begingroup$ So en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interior_Schwarzschild_metric only applies when there is matter in $r<2M$? $\endgroup$
    – user345249
    Commented Jun 3 at 10:20
  • $\begingroup$ @user345249 Oh, that is what you mean by an interior solution. The interior Schwarzschild solution is a completely different solution obtained by Schwarzschild. It is a special case of the TOV solution and it describes the solution for a perfect fluid of constant density (assuming staticity and spherical symmetry). Indeed, it does not apply in vacuum, but I think I can get vacuum as a limiting case. Let me open the calculations $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 3 at 15:12
  • $\begingroup$ @user345249 I don't think this limit can be done, for a very fundamental reason: in the Schwarzschild internal solution, you assume there are no singularities at the origin (this is done by assuming that $m(0) = 0$ in the equations I wrote). In the exterior solution, there is a singularity at the origin, because "$m(0) = M > 0$" (quotation marks because $r = 0$ does not lie in the spacetime, since it is a singularity). Due to this difference, you can't get a limiting behavior. This can be noticed by how $g_{rr}$ behaves differently in both solutions $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 3 at 15:20
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    $\begingroup$ @JanG Great question! The issue is just that these coordinates are terrible for this analysis. Spherical symmetry means the isometry group has a subgroup isomorphic to $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ and staticity means there is some timelike Killing vector field which is hypersurface orthogonal. I do expect this to be true (due to Birkhoff's theorem and I knowing that this is Schwarzschild's solution), but these coordinates make this rather complicated. For the spherical symmetry, we can notice the angular dependency only occurs by means of the metric of the unit sphere $\mathrm{d}\Omega^2$ + $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 3 at 16:12
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    $\begingroup$ even though the "radius parameter" seems extremely weird. So the angular dependence is in agreement with spherical symmetry. As for the timelike Killing vector field, it certainly does not seem to be $\partial_{t'}$. Indeed, in the Schwarzschild spacetime the global timelike Killing field is not $\partial_t$ either. But there must be some Killing field, possibly expressed in way different coordinates (I don't know which coordinates are appropriate for this) $\endgroup$ Commented Jun 3 at 16:15

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