Nonlinear perturbations of the Kaluza-Klein monopole

We consider the nonlinear stability of the Kaluza-Klein monopole viewed as the static solution of the five dimensional vacuum Einstein equations. Using both numerical and analytical methods we give evidence that the Kaluza-Klein monopole is asymptotically stable within the cohomogeneity-two biaxial Bianchi IX ansatz recently introduced in \cite{bcs}. We also show that for sufficiently large perturbations the Kaluza-Klein monopole loses stability and collapses to a Kaluza-Klein black hole. The relevance of our results for the stability of BPS states in M/String theory is briefly discussed.