On the growth of the number of primitive totally geodesic surfaces in some hyperbolic 3-manifolds (Q2420386)

In correspondence with the number of primes less than a given number, the growth of the number of primitive closed geodesics in a given Riemannian manifold, with length less than a given bound, has been extensively studied. The paper presently under review provides a further analogue: a formula for the number of immersed, totally geodesic surfaces, of area less than a given bound, within certain hyperbolic \(3\)-manifolds. The manifolds in question arise as quotients of hyperbolic \(3\)-space by the Bianchi groups, and the formulas are obtained by studying Fuchsian subgroups via quaternion algebras. Primitive closed geodesics and immersed totally geodesic surfaces here provide the analogues of prime numbers. A closed geodesic is primitive if it is not a proper power, when considered as an element of the fundamental group; in the present paper, minimal area surfaces are identified with maximal Fuchsian subgroups, and hence can be seen as those surfaces which do not cover other surfaces within the \(3\)-manifold. The method employed is as follows. Let \(d\) be a positive integer congruent to \(3\) mod \(4\), where the ideal class group of \(\mathbb{Q}[\sqrt{-d}]\) contains no elements of order \(4\). A result of \textit{L. Ya. Vulakh} [Lect. Notes Pure Appl. Math. 147, 297--310 (1993; Zbl 0796.20039)] classifies binary hermitian forms, and hence the planes stabilized by Fuchsian subgroups of the Bianchi group \(\mathrm{PSL}_2(\mathcal{O}_d)\). The areas of the corresponding surfaces are given by [\textit{J. Voight}, Quaternion algebras. Cham: Springer (2020; Zbl 1481.11003)] in terms of the arithmetic of the related order in a quaternion algebra. Much of the work in the paper is then concerned with the details of the number theory of these orders, in order to produce the stated formula.