Godel type universes in string inspired charged gravity

We consider a string-inspired, gravitational theory of scalar and electromagnetic fields and we investigate the existence of axially symmetric, G{umlt o}del-type cosmological solutions. The neutral case is studied first and an {open_quotes}extreme{close_quotes} G{umlt o}del-type rotating solution, which respects the causality, is determined. The charged case is considered next and two new configurations, minimally coupled to gravity, are presented, for the electromagnetic field. Another configuration motivated by the expected distribution of currents and charges in a rotating universe is studied and shown to lead to a G{umlt o}del-type solution for a space-dependent coupling function. Finally, we investigate the existence of G{umlt o}del-type cosmological solutions in the framework of the one-loop corrected superstring effective action and we determine the sole configuration of the electromagnetic field that leads to such a solution. It turns out that, in all the charged cases considered, closed timelike curves do appear and the causality is always violated. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}