Mahler measure and volumes in hyperbolic space (Q1768277)

The Mahler measure of a Laurent polynomial \(P\in\mathbb C[x_1^{\pm1},\dots,x_n^{\pm1}]\) is defined by \[ \roman m(P)=\idotsint_{[0,1]^n} \log| P(e^{2\pi i\theta_1},\dots,e^{2\pi i\theta_n})| \,\roman d\theta_1\dotsb\roman d\theta_n. \] Despite of a simple expression in the case \(n=1\) for \(\roman m(P)\) by means of the roots of the polynomial~\(P\), the case \(n\geq2\) is known to be much harder. There are a few examples only of proved or conjectured closed-form evaluations of \(\roman m(P)\) when \(n\geq2\). The main result of the paper under review computes the Mahler measure of the polynomial \[ R(x,y)=R_t(x,y)=t(x^m-1)y-(x^n-1)\in\mathbb C[x,y] \] in two different ways: in terms of a finite sum involving values of the Bloch--Wigner dilogarithm \[ D(z)=\text{Im}\sum_{l=1}^\infty\frac{z^l}{l^2} +\log| z| \,\text{arg}(1-z), \] and in terms of volumes of ideal hyperbolic polyhedra built over polygons with \(n\)~sides of length~1 and \(m\)~sides of length~\(| t| \). This generalizes some examples given recently by \textit{V.~Maillot} [Arakelov geometry of toric varieties and integrable line bundles (French), Mém. Soc. Math. Fr., Nouv. Sér. 80, 129 pp. (2000; Zbl 0963.14009)] and by \textit{D. W. Boyd} and \textit{F. Rodriguez-Villegas} [Mahler's measure and the dilogarithm.\ II (in press)].