Cosmic string and black hole limits of toroidal Vlasov bodies in general relativity.

We numerically investigate limits of a two-parameter family of stationary solutions to the Einstein-Vlasov system. The solutions are toroidal and have nonvanishing angular momentum. As the parameters are tuned to more relativistic solutions (measured e.g., by an increasing redshift) we provide evidence for a sequence of solutions which approaches the extreme Kerr black hole family. Solutions with angular momentum larger than the square of the mass are also investigated, and in the relativistic limit the near-field geometry of such solutions is observed to become locally rotationally symmetric about the matter density. The existence of a deficit angle in these regions is investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]