Deformation of three-dimensional hyperbolic cone structures: the noncollapsing case (Q2510055)

A hyperbolic cone metric on a \(3\)-manifold \(M\) with singularity set a fixed embedded link \(L\subset M\) is a Riemannian metric of constant curvature \(-1\) on the complement \(M-L\) such that the metric completion is \(M\) with cone-type singularities at \(L\). In [J. Differ. Geom. 49, No. 3, 469--516 (1998; Zbl 0990.57004)] \textit{S. Kojima} proved the following generalization of Mostow rigidity: when the cone angles at the singularities are between \(0\) and \(\pi\), then there is a unique deformation of the hyperbolic cone metric which deforms the cone angles at the singularities from \(0\) to \(\pi\). The paper under review considers hyperbolic cone manifolds with cone angles between \(0\) and \(2\pi\). In particular it aims to answer the question (proposed by Thurston) whether, given a simple closed geodesic \(\Sigma\subset M\) in a closed hyperbolic \(3\)-manifold, one can perturb through cone angles \(\alpha\in\left[0,2\pi\right]\) to the complete hyperbolic structure on \(M-\Sigma\). If such a deformation exists, then as a consequence of the hyperbolic Dehn surgery theorem the length of the singular link must converge to zero and in particular remain bounded. Therefore one should study deformations where the length of the singularity remains bounded. The paper under review is one of two papers by the author to study limits of such deformations, namely it is devoted to the noncollapsing case, while the other one classifies the manifolds supporting collapsing sequences (i.e., the injectivity radii tend to zero outside the singular set). The main result in this paper states that in the noncollapsing case the sequence of pointed hyperbolic cone manifolds converges to a \(3\)-dimensional pointed Alexandrov space with a (noncomplete) hyperbolic metric on the complement of a finite union of (possibly intersecting) quasigeodesics. As an application the deformation proposed by Thurston exists if and only if the hyperbolic metric can be deformed such that the length of the singular set converges to zero. As another application the author obtains universal upper bounds for the diameter and lower bounds for the volume of hyperbolic cone manifolds of given topological type and cone angles in \(\left[\epsilon,2\pi\right]\).