Mutations and short geodesics in hyperbolic 3-manifolds (Q1688589)

A hyperelliptic surface \(F\) is defined as a surface admitting an order two automorphism of \(F\) which fixes every isotopy class of curves in \(F\), called a hyperelliptic involution. A mutation along a hyperelliptic surface \(F\) in a hyperbolic 3-manifold \(M\) is an operation where \(M\) is cut along \(F\), and then reglued by a hyperelliptic involution \(\mu\) of \(F\), often producing a new 3-manifold \(M^\mu\). While a mutation can often change the global topology of a manifold, the action is subtle enough that many geometric, quantum, and classical invariants are preserved under mutation. The set of all lengths of closed geodesics in \(M\) counted with multiplicites is called the length spectrum of \(M\). If \(\gamma\subset M\) is a closed geodesic, then the complex length of \(\gamma\) is the complex number \(\ell_{\mathbb C}(\gamma)=\ell(\gamma)+i\,\theta\), where \(\ell(\gamma)\) is the length of \(\gamma\) and \(\theta\) is the angle of rotation incurred by traveling once around \(\gamma\). If \(F\subset M\) is a properly and smoothly embedded surface in a Riemannian 3-manifold \(M\), then \(F\) is called a least area surface when \(F\) minimizes area in its homotopy class. Two hyperbolic 3-manifolds \(M_1=\mathbb H^3/\Gamma_1\) and \(M_2=\mathbb H^3/\Gamma_2\) are called commensurable if they share a common finite-sheeted cover. In terms of fundamental groups, this definition is equivalent to \(\Gamma_1\) and a conjugate of \(\Gamma_2\) in \(\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb C)\) sharing some finite index subgroup. The commensurability class of a hyperbolic 3-manifold \(M\) is the set of all 3-manifolds commensurable with \(M\). In this paper, the author explicitly constructs large classes of incommensurable hyperbolic knot complements with the same volume and the same initial length spectrum. It is shown that these knot complements are the only knot complements in their respective commensurability classes by analyzing their cusp shapes. The author provides geometric and topological conditions under which mutations preserve the initial length spectrum, and analyzes when least area surfaces could intersect short geodesics in a hyperbolic 3-manifold. It is shown that if \(F\) is an incompressible and \(\delta\)-incompressible surface with \(|\chi(F)|\leq 2\) embedded in a hyperbolic manifold \(M\), and \(\gamma\subset M\) is a closed geodesic with embedded tubular radius \(r\) satisfying (i)\, \(r>2\ln(1+\sqrt 2)\), or (ii)\, \(\ell(\gamma)<0.015\), or (iii)\,\(\gamma\) is the core of a solid torus added by Dehn filling \(N\cong M\setminus\gamma\) along a slope of normalized length \(\widehat L\geq 14.90\), then \(\gamma\) can be isotoped disjoint from \(F\), and if \(F\) is embedded in least area form, then either \(\gamma\cap F=\varnothing\) without any isotopy, or \(n\cdot\gamma\) is isotopic to \(F\) for some \(n\in\mathbb N\), where \(n\cdot\gamma\) is a simple closed curve that is in the homotopy class of \([n\cdot\gamma]\in\pi_1(\partial T_r(\gamma))\). Also, the author proves that if \(F\subset M\) is a properly embedded surface in \(M\) that is incompressible, \(\delta\)-incompressible, and admits a hyperelliptic involution \(\mu\), and \(M\) has \(n\) geodesics shorter than some constant \(L<0.015\), then \(M\) and \(M^\mu\) have at least the same \(n\) initial values of their respective length spectra. Furthermore, the author proves that if \(K\) is a hyperbolic knot in \(\mathbb S^3\), \(K\) admits no hidden symmetries, has no lens space surgery, and admits either no symmetries or else only a strong inversion and no other symmetries, then \(\mathbb S^3\setminus K\) is the only knot complement in its commensurability class.