A census of hyperbolic Platonic manifolds and augmented knotted trivalent graphs (Q2359541)

A 3-manifold is called hyperbolic if it admits a complete Riemannian metric of finite volume with curvature identically equal to \(-1\). When this is the case, the metric is unique by Mostow rigidity, so one may hope that it should be possible to describe the unique hyperbolic metric explicitly. Indeed, there are well known methods (initiated by Thurston and Weeks) to obtain an explicit description of the hyperbolic metric, starting from a triangulation, and realizing the corresponding tetrahedra geometrically in hyperbolic 3-space (possibly with ideal vertices, i.e. vertices on the boundary at infinity of hyperbolic space). In [Exp. Math. 25, No. 4, 466--481 (2016; Zbl 1344.57009)], \textit{E. Fominykh} et al. studied the class of hyperbolic manifolds that can be obtained by gluing a restricted class of tetrahedra, namely one requires that every tetrahedron in the triangulation should be realized by a \textit{regular} hyperbolic tetrahedron. Such manifolds are called tetrahedral manifolds. In the paper just cited, the authors present algorithmic methods that allow them to produce a census of the hyperbolic manifolds that can be obtained by gluing at most 25 regular tetrahedra. The purpose of the paper under review is to generalize these algorithms, to produce a census of the hyperbolic manifolds that can be tiled by (a reasonably small number of) congruent regular hyperbolic polyhedra that have the combinatorics of a fixed Platonic solid (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron or icosahedron). Such manifolds are called Platonic manifolds. The paper lists only the number of Platonic manifolds obtained by gluing (a small number of) Platonic solids, but the corresponding list of manifolds can be readily accessed through the SnapPy software. The author also discusses some geometric and arithmetic properties of the Platonic manifolds found in the census, including hidden symmetries.