Suppose n>2, let M,M' be n-dimensional connected complete finite-volume hyperbolic manifolds with non-empty geodesic boundary, and suppose that the fundamental group of M is quasi-isometric to the fundamental group of M' (with respect to the word metric). Also suppose that if n=3, then the boundaries of M and of M' are compact. We show that M is commensurable with M'. Moreover, we show that there exist homotopically equivalent hyperbolic 3-manifolds with non-compact geodesic boundary which are not commensurable with each other.
We also prove that if M is as above and G is a finitely generated group which is quasi-isometric to the fundamental group of M, then there exists a hyperbolic manifold with geodesic boundary M'' with the following properties: M'' is commensurable with M, and G is a finite extension of a group which contains the fundamental group of M'' as a finite-index subgroup.
We show that a hyperbolic 2-bridge knot complement is the unique knot complement in its commensurability class. We also discuss constructions of commensurable hyperbolic knot complements and put forth a conjecture on the number of hyperbolic knot complements in a commensurability class.
We investigate relation between Dehn fillings and commensurability of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. The set consisting of the commensurability classes of hyperbolic 3-manifolds admits the quotient topology induced by the geometric topology. We show that this quotient space satisfies some separation axioms. Roughly speaking, this means that commensurablity classes are sparsely distributed in the space consisting of the hyperbolic 3-manifolds.
Gromov and Piatetski-Shapiro proved existence of finite volume non-arithmetic hyperbolic manifolds of any given dimension. In dimension four and higher, we show that there are about v^v such manifolds of volume at most v, considered up to commensurability. Since the number of arithmetic ones tends to be polynomial, almost all hyperbolic manifolds are non-arithmetic in an appropriate sense. Our method involves a geometric graph-of-spaces construction that relies on arithmetic properties of certain quadratic forms.
We give examples of non-fibered hyperbolic knot complements in homology spheres that are not commensurable to fibered knot complements in homology spheres. In fact, we give many examples of knot complements in homology spheres with the property that every commensurable knot complement in a homology sphere has non-monic Alexander polynomial.
We parametrize the commensurability classes of curves on Shimura surfaces that are totally geodesic, i.e., the commensurability classes of so-called $\mathbb{C}$-Fuchsian subgroups. In particular, if a Shimura surface contains one commensurability class of totally geodesic curves, it contains infinitely many.
In this paper we analyze and classify the totally geodesic subspaces of finite volume quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds and their generalizations, locally symmetric orbifolds arising from irreducible lattices in Lie groups of the form $(\mathbf{Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{R}))^q \times \prod_{i=1}^r \mathbf{Sp}(p_i,n-p_i) \times (\mathbf{Sp}_{2n}(\mathbb{C}))^s$. We give criteria for when the totally geodesic subspaces of such an orbifold determine its commensurability class. We give a parametrization of the commensurability classes of finite volume quaternionic hyperbolic orbifolds in terms of arithmeti…
We show that there exist infinitely many commensurability classes of finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds whose fundamental group contains a subgroup which is locally free but not free. The main technical tool is the fact that a collection of hyperbolic 3-manifolds of bounded volume contains infinitely many commensurability classes. The result then by an application of Thurston's hyperbolization theorem for Haken 3-manifolds.
This paper investigates the strength of the trace field as a commensurability invariant of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. We construct an infinite family of two-component hyperbolic link complements which are pairwise incommensurable and have the same trace field, and infinitely many 1-cusped finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds with the same property. We also show that the two-component link complements above have integral traces, but each has a mutant with a nonintegral trace.
We discuss fibered commensurability of fibrations on a hyperbolic 3-manifold, a notion introduced by Calegari, Sun and Wang. We construct manifolds with non-symmetric but commensurable fibrations on the same fibered face. We also prove that if a given manifold M does not have any hidden symmetries, then M does not admit non-symmetric but commensu- rable fibrations. Finally, Theorem 3.1 of Calegari, Sun and Wang shows that every hyperbolic fibered commensurability class contains a unique minimal element. In this paper we provide a detailed discussion on the proof of the theorem in the cusped ca…
We describe a general procedure to produce fundamental domains for complex hyperbolic triangle groups, a class of groups that contains a representative of the commensurability class of every known non-arithmetic lattice in ${\rm PU}(2,1)$. We discuss several commensurability invariants for lattices, and show that some triangle groups yield new commensurability classes, bringing the number of known non-arithmetic commensurability classes to 22.
We investigate commensurability classes of hyperbolic knot complements in the generic case of knots without hidden symmetries. We show that such knot complements which are commensurable are cyclically commensurable, and that there are at most $3$ hyperbolic knot complements in a cyclic commensurability class. Moreover if two hyperbolic knots have cyclically commensurable complements, then they are fibered with the same genus and are chiral. A characterisation of cyclic commensurability classes of complements of periodic knots is also given. In the non-periodic case, we reduce the characterisat…
The work of Reid, Chinburg--Hamilton--Long--Reid, Prasad--Rapinchuk, and the author with Reid have demonstrated that geodesics or totally geodesic submanifolds can sometimes be used to determine the commensurability class of an arithmetic manifold. The main results of this article show that generalizations of these results to other arithmetic manifolds will require a wide range of data. Specifically, we prove that certain incommensurable arithmetic manifolds arising from the semisimple Lie groups of the form $(\SL(d,\R))^r \times (\SL(d,\C))^s$ have the same commensurability classes of totally…
We describe a collection of computer scripts written in PARI/GP to compute, for reflection groups determined by finite-volume polyhedra in $\mathbb{H}^3$, the commensurability invariants known as the invariant trace field and invariant quaternion algebra. Our scripts also allow one to determine arithmeticity of such groups and the isomorphism class of the invariant quaternion algebra by analyzing its ramification. We present many computed examples of these invariants. This is enough to show that most of the groups that we consider are pairwise incommensurable. For pairs of groups with identica…
In this paper, we show that any non-arithmetic hyperbolic $2$-bridge link complement admits no hidden symmetries. As a corollary, we conclude that a hyperbolic $2$-bridge link complement cannot irregularly cover a hyperbolic $3$-manifold. By combining this corollary with the work of Boileau and Weidmann, we obtain a characterization of $3$-manifolds with non-trivial JSJ-decomposition and rank two fundamental groups. We also show that the only commensurable hyperbolic $2$-bridge link complements are the figure-eight knot complement and the $6_{2}^{2}$ link complement. Our work requires a carefu…
Let $\mathcal{X}_S$ denote the class of spaces homeomorphic to two closed orientable surfaces of genus greater than one identified to each other along an essential simple closed curve in each surface. Let $\mathcal{C}_S$ denote the set of fundamental groups of spaces in $\mathcal{X}_S$. In this paper, we characterize the abstract commensurability classes within $\mathcal{C}_S$ in terms of the ratio of the Euler characteristic of the surfaces identified and the topological type of the curves identified. We prove that all groups in $\mathcal{C}_S$ are quasi-isometric by exhibiting a bilipschitz …
We present a notion of mutation of hyperbolic polyhedra, analogous to mutation in knot theory, and then present a general question about commensurability of mutant pairs of polyhedra. We motivate that question with several concrete examples of mutant pairs for which commensurability is unknown. The polyhedra we consider are compact, so techniques involving cusps that are typically used to distinguishing mutant pairs of knots are not applicable. Indeed, new techniques may need to be developed to study commensurability of mutant pairs of polyhedra.
The set of axes of hyperbolic elements in a Fuchsian group depends on the commensurability class of the group. In fact, it has been conjectured that it determines the commensurability class and this has been verified in for groups of the second kind by G. Mess and for arithemetic groups by by D. Long and A. Reid. Here we show that the conjecture holds for almost all Fuchsian groups and explain why our method fails for arithemetic groups.
It is a longstanding problem to determine the precise relationship between the geodesic length spectrum of a hyperbolic manifold and its commensurability class. A well known result of Reid, for instance, shows that the geodesic length spectrum of an arithmetic hyperbolic surface determines the surface's commensurability class. It is known, however, that non-commensurable arithmetic hyperbolic surfaces may share arbitrarily large portions of their length spectra. In this paper we investigate this phenomenon and prove a number of quantitative results about the maximum cardinality of a family of …
These are notes based on a series of talks that the author gave at the "Interactions between hyperbolic geometry and quantum groups" conference held at Columbia University in June of 2009.
We construct a family of right-angled Coxeter groups which provide counter-examples to questions about the stable boundary of a group, one-endedness of quasi-geodesically stable subgroups, and the commensurability types of right-angled Coxeter groups.
Our main result is that for all sufficiently large $x_0>0$, the set of commensurability classes of arithmetic hyperbolic 2- or 3-orbifolds with fixed invariant trace field $k$ and systole bounded below by $x_0$ has density one within the set of all commensurability classes of arithmetic hyperbolic 2- or 3-orbifolds with invariant trace field $k$. The proof relies upon bounds for the absolute logarithmic Weil height of algebraic integers due to Silverman, Brindza and Hajdu, as well as precise estimates for the number of rational quaternion algebras not admitting embeddings of any quadratic fiel…
We produce a family of new, non arithmetic lattices in PU(2,1). All previously known examples were commensurable with lattices constructed by Picard, Mostow and Deligne-Mostow, and fell into 9 commensurability classes. Our groups produce 5 new distinct commensurability classes. Most of the techniques are completely general, and provide efficient geometric and computational tools for constructing fundamental domains for discrete group acting on the complex hyperbolic plane.
In this paper we examine the geometry of minimal surfaces of arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifolds. In particular, we give bounds on the totally geodesic 2-systole, construct infinitely many incommensurable manifolds with the same initial geometric genus spectrum in which volume and 1-systole are controlled, and analyze the growth of the genera of minimal surfaces across commensurability classes. These results have applications to the study of how Heegard genus grows across commensurability classes.
This paper gives a complete parametrization of the commensurability classes of totally geodesic subspaces of irreducible arithmetic quotients of $X_{a, b} = (\mathbf{H}^2)^a \times (\mathbf{H}^3)^b$. A special case describes all Shimura subvarieties of type $\mathrm{A}_1$ Shimura varieties. We produce, for any $n\geq 1$, examples of manifolds/Shimura varieties with precisely $n$ commensurability classes of totally geodesic submanifolds/Shimura subvarieties. This is in stark contrast with the previously studied cases of arithmetic hyperbolic $3$-manifolds and quaternionic Shimura surfaces, wher…
We construct a family of hyperbolic link complements by gluing tangles along totally geodesic four-punctured spheres, then investigate the commensurability relation among its members. Those with different volume are incommensurable, distinguished by their scissors congruence classes. Mutation produces arbitrarily large finite subfamilies of nonisometric manifolds with the same volume and scissors congruence class. Depending on the choice of mutation, these manifolds may be commensurable or incommensurable, distinguished in the latter case by cusp parameters. All have trace field Q(i,\sqrt{2}),…
In all dimensions $n \ge 5$, we prove the existence of closed orientable hyperbolic manifolds that do not admit any $\text{spin}^c$ structure, and in fact we show that there are infinitely many commensurability classes of such manifolds. These manifolds all have non-vanishing third Stiefel--Whitney class $w_3$ and are all arithmetic of simplest type. More generally, we show that for each $k \ge 1$ and $n \ge 4k+1$, there exist infinitely many commensurability classes of closed orientable hyperbolic $n$-manifolds $M$ with $w_{4k-1}(M) \ne 0$.
Let K be a hyperbolic (-2,3,n) pretzel knot and M = S^3 K its complement. For these knots, we verify a conjecture of Reid and Walsh: there are at most three knot complements in the commensurability class of M. Indeed, if n \neq 7, we show that M is the unique knot complement in its class. We include examples to illustrate how our methods apply to a broad class of Montesinos knots.
This paper initiates a systematic study of the relation of commensurability of surface automorphisms, or equivalently, fibered commensurability of 3-manifolds fibering over the circle. We show that every hyperbolic fibered commensurability class contains a unique minimal element, whereas the class of Seifert manifolds fibering over the circle consists of a single commensurability class with infinitely many minimal elements. The situation for non-geometric manifolds is more complicated, and we illustrate a range of phenomena that can occur in this context.
This article explores closed geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces. We show that, for sufficiently large $k$, the shortest closed geodesics with at least $k$ self-intersections, taken among all hyperbolic surfaces, all lie on an ideal pair of pants and have length $2\arccosh(2k+1)$.
Let W be a compact hyperbolic n-manifold with totally geodesic boundary. We prove that if n>3 then the holonomy representation of pi_1 (W) into the isometry group of hyperbolic n-space is infinitesimally rigid.
We give an identity involving sums of functions of lengths of simple closed geodesics, known as a McShane identity, on any non-orientable hyperbolic surface with boundary which generalises Mirzakhani's identities on orientable hyperbolic surfaces with boundary.
This paper determines which orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds contain simple closed geodesics. The Fuchsian group corresponding to the thrice-punctured sphere generates the only example of a complete non-elementary orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold that does not contain a simple closed geodesic. We do not assume that the manifold is geometrically finite or that it has finitely generated fundamental group.
In this article, we prove that the commensurability class of a closed, orientable, hyperbolic 3-manifold is determined by the surface subgroups of its fundamental group. Moreover, we prove that there can be only finitely many closed, orientable, hyperbolic 3-manifolds that have the same set of surfaces.
Given a geometrically finite hyperbolic cone-manifold, with the cone singularity sufficiently short, we construct a one parameter family of cone-manifolds decreasing the cone angle to zero. We also control the geometry of this one parameter family via the Schwarzian derivative of the projective boundary and the length of closed geodesics.
We show that two uniform lattices of a regular right-angled Fuchsian building are commensurable, provided the chamber is a polygon with at least six edges. We show that in an arbitrary Gromov-hyperbolic regular right-angled building associated to a graph product of finite groups, a uniform lattice is commensurable with the graph product provided all of its quasiconvex subgroups are separable. We obtain a similar result for uniform lattices of the Davis complex of Gromov-hyperbolic two-dimensional Coxeter groups. We also prove that every extension of a uniform lattice of a CAT(0) square complex…
This article deals with the set of closed geodesics on complete finite type hyperbolic surfaces. For any non-negative integer $k$, we consider the set of closed geodesics that self-intersect at least $k$ times, and investigate those of minimal length. The main result is that, if the surface has at least one cusp, their self-intersection numbers are exactly $k$ for large enough $k$.
The goal of the article is to provide different explicit quantifications of the non density of simple closed geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces. In particular, we show that within any embedded metric disk on a surface, lies a disk of radius only depending on the topology of the surface (and the size of the first embedded disk), which is disjoint from any simple closed geodesic.
We prove that every complete finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifold $M$ that is tessellated into (embedded) right-angled regular polyhedra (dodecahedra or ideal octahedra) embeds geodesically in a complete finite-volume connected orientable hyperbolic 4-manifold $W$, which is also tessellated into right-angled regular polytopes (120-cells and ideal 24-cells). If $M$ is connected, then Vol($W$) < $2^{49}$Vol($M$). This applies for instance to the Borromean link complement. As a consequence, the Borromean link complement bounds geometrically a hyperbolic 4-manifold.
In this paper we show that totally geodesic subspaces determine the commensurability class of a standard arithmetic hyperbolic $n$-orbifold, $n\ge 4$. Many of the results are more general and apply to locally symmetric spaces associated to arithmetic lattices in $\mathbb{R}$-simple Lie groups of type $B_n$ and $D_n$. We use a combination of techniques from algebraic groups and quadratic forms to prove several results about these spaces.
Let M be a complete finite-volume hyperbolic 3-manifold with compact non-empty geodesic boundary and k toric cusps, and let T be a geometric partially truncated triangulation of M. We show that the variety of solutions of consistency equations for T is a smooth manifold or real dimension 2k near the point representing the unique complete structure on M. As a consequence, the relation between deformations of triangulations and deformations of representations is completely understood, at least in a neighbourhood of the complete structure. This allows us to prove, for example, that small deformat…
In this article we study the spectrum of totally geodesic surfaces of a finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifold. We show that for arithmetic hyperbolic 3-manifolds that contain a totally geodesic surface, this spectrum determines the commensurability class. In addition, we show that any finite volume hyperbolic 3-manifold has many pairs of non-isometric finite covers with identical spectra. Forgetting multiplicities, we can also construct pairs where the volume ratio is unbounded.
The lengths of geodesics on hyperbolic surfaces satisfy intriguing equations, known as identities, relating these lengths to geometric quantities of the surface. This paper is about a large family of identities that relate lengths of closed geodesics and orthogeodesics to boundary lengths or number of cusps. These include, as particular cases, identities due to Basmajian, to McShane and to Mirzakhani and Tan-Wong-Zhang. In stark contrast to previous identities, the identities presented here include the lengths taken among all closed geodesics.
This paper shows that many hyperbolic manifolds obtained by glueing arithmetic pieces embed into higher-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds as codimension-one totally geodesic submanifolds. As a consequence, many Gromov--Pyatetski-Shapiro and Agol--Belolipetsky--Thomson non-arithmetic manifolds embed geodesically. Moreover, we show that the number of commensurability classes of hyperbolic manifolds with a representative of volume $\leq v$ that bounds geometrically is at least $v^{Cv}$, for $v$ large enough.
The first examples of totally geodesic Seifert surfaces are constructed for hyperbolic knots and links, including both free and totally knotted surfaces. Then it is proved that two bridge knot complements cannot contain totally geodesic orientable surfaces.
