Abstract
Abstract
It is well-known that the mass of a non-asymptotically flat spacetime cannot be uniquely defined. Some mass formulas for the Kerr-AdS black hole have been found and used in studying black hole thermodynamics. However, the derivations usually need a background subtraction to eliminate the divergence at infinity. It is also unknown whether the mass depends on the choice of coordinates. In this paper, we provide a more straightforward derivation for the mass formula, only demanding that the first law of black hole thermodynamics and Smarr formula are satisfied. We first make use of the Iyer-Wald formalism to derive a first law which avoids the divergence at infinity. Then we apply this formula to charged Kerr-AdS black hole expressed in the coordinates rotating at infinity. However, the first law associated with the timelike Killing vector field
∂
∂
t
is not integrable. Then, by making use of the gauge freedom of t, we find a favorite parameter
t
′
which just makes the mass integrable. Applying the scaling argument, we show that the mass satisfies the Smarr formula and takes the form M/Ξ3/2. Moreover, applying the conformal method with
∂
∂
t
′
, we obtain the same mass. By applying the first law to the coordinates which is not rotating at infinity, we find a preferred time T that makes the first law integrable and the mass is just the familiar mass M/Ξ2 in the literature. This mass is also confirmed by the conformal method. We find that the two mass formulas correspond to different families of observers and the preferred Killing times. So our work clarifies the ambiguities of mass in Kerr-AdS spacetimes.