Rigidity of geometrically finite hyperbolic cone-manifolds (Q1827420)

A hyperbolic cone-manifold is a singular hyperbolic structure where the singularity is a simple closed curve with cross-section a hyperbolic cone. A hyperbolic structure on a manifold, \(M_0\), is said to be locally rigid if for any smooth family of hyperbolic metrics \(M_t\), \(M_0\) is isometric to \(M_t\) for small \(t\). In a recent paper [J. Differ. Geom. 48, No. 1, 1--59 (1998; Zbl 0919.57009)] \textit{C. D. Hodgson} and \textit{S. P. Kerckhoff} prove a local rigidity result for finite volume three-dimensional hyperbolic cone-manifolds. In the present paper the author extends this result to geometrically finite cone-manifolds without rank one cusps. Theorem: If \(M\) is a geometrically finite cone-manifold without rank one cusps and all cone angles are \(\leq 2\pi\) then it is locally rigid relative to cone angles and the conformal boundary. For the proof the author extends the methods of \textit{E. Calabi} [Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 3, 155--180 (1961; Zbl 0129.14102)] and \textit{A. Weil} [Ann. Math. (2) 72, 369--384 (1960; Zbl 0131.26602)] in their proof that closed hyperbolic manifolds of dimension \(\geq 3\) are locally rigid. By his method the author also obtains a new proof of a local version of the classical rigidity theorem for geometrically finite hyperbolic 3-manifolds.