Rigidity of cusps in deformations of hyperbolic 3-orbifolds (Q1318057)

Starting with a 3-manifold with a complete hyperbolic structure of finite volume, a theory originated by Thurston allows one to consider deformations of this structure to manifolds which are not complete, but whose completions are the result of filling in some of the cusps with solid tori. The topological type of the manifold is changed, and in place of the cusp is a geodesic which arises from the core circle of the solid torus. This process, known as Dehn filling, can also be adapted to hyperbolic 3-orbifolds. A natural question is how the Euclidean structure associated to the other cusps changes during such deformations. In previous work [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 109, No. 3, 509-515 (1991; Zbl 0728.57009)] the authors constructed examples of 2-cusped hyperbolic 3-orbifolds with the property that deforming one of the cusps by any hyperbolic Dehn filling while keeping the other cusp complete left the Euclidean structure of the complete cusp unaffected. This unaffected cusp is said to be geometrically isolated from the other one. In the paper under review, the authors give a number of refinements of this construction. In particular, they prove that there are infinitely many 2- cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds whose cusps are geometrically isolated from each other, thereby disproving a conjecture of another author. They also construct such an example which is arithmetic. A 2-cusped example is constructed which has one cusp geometrically isolated from the other, yet the other is not geometrically isolated from the first. Refinements of the concept of geometric isolation are introduced, examined, and related to the analytic function \(\Phi\) on the character variety, introduced by the first author and D. Zagier. The paper is very well-written, with useful figures and a number of explicit volume calculations obtained using Snappea.