Finite groups and hyperbolic manifolds (Q2574964)

Let \(\mathbb{H}^n\) denote the hyperbolic \(n\)-space, that is the unique connected, simply connected Riemannian manifold of constant curvature \(-1\). By a compact hyperbolic \(n\)-manifold we mean a quotient space \(M= \mathbb{H}^n/\Gamma\) where \(\Gamma\) is a cocompact torsion-free discrete subgroup of the group \(H= \text{Isom}(\mathbb{H}^n)\) of the isometries of \(\mathbb{H}^n\). The group \(\text{Isom}(M)\) of the isometries of \(M\) is finite and it is isomorphic to \(N_H(\Gamma)/\Gamma\) where \(N_H(\Gamma)\) denotes the normalizer of \(\Gamma\) in \(M\). In the paper under review the following result is proved. For every \(n\geq 2\) and every finite group \(G\) there exist infinitely many compact \(n\)-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds \(M\) with \(\text{Isom}(M)\simeq G\). The result was known for \(n= 2\) since 1974 (L. Greenberg) and for \(n= 3\) since 1988 (S. Kojima). The case of the trivial group was proved by D. Long and A. Reid. In the geometric part of the proof the authors use the results of \textit{M. Gromov} and \textit{I. I. Piatetski-Shapiro} [Publ. Math. Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 66, 93--103 (1988; Zbl 0649.22007)]. But the main part of the proof is occupied by some algebraic and group theoretic methods. Finally, we want to mention that the arguments are non-constructive: by the authors this means that they use counting results from subgroup growth theory.