Two applications of the natural map (Q2427425)

Ahlfors' measure theorem states that the limit set of a f.g. geometrically finite group of isometries of the hyperbolic \(n\)-space \(\mathbb H^n\) either is the whole sphere \(\mathbb S^{n-1}\), the boundary at infinity of \(\mathbb H^n\) (then, in the geometrically finite case, the group has finite co-volume), or the Lebesgue measure of the limit set vanishes (in dimension three, this is known now for arbitrary finitely generated groups of isometries). A more subtle invariant of a group is the Hausdorff-dimension of the limit set; in the 3-dimensional case, Canary gave an estimate of the Hausdorff-dimension in terms of the volume of the convex core of the quotient manifold. In the present paper, short proofs of both Ahlfors' measure theorem and Canary's 3-dimensional estimate of the Hausdorff-dimension are given by a method recently introduced by \textit{G. Besson, G. Courtois} and \textit{S. Gallot} [J. Differ. Geom. 79, No.~3, 335--387 (2008; Zbl 1206.53038)], using the concepts of conformal density, Busemann function and certain natural maps associated to these.