Hyperbolic 4-manifolds, colourings and mutations (Q2827966)

A complete hyperbolic \(n\)-manifold \(M\) of finite volume is diffeomorphic to the interior of a compact bounded \(n\)-manifold \(\overline{M}\) with boundary components flat \((n-1)\)-manifolds. Parallel copies of the components of \(\partial\overline{M}\) in \(M\) are called ``cusp sections'', and the corresponding ends of \(M\) are ``cusps''. This paper gives two orientable 4-dimensional examples with small volume and one cusp. The cusp section of one example is the orientable flat 3-manifold with holonomy \(\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z\); for the other one it is the 3-torus. In each case \(\chi(M)=2\) and the volume is the smallest known among such manifolds. (It is twice the theoretically possible minimum, corresponding to \(\chi(M)=1\).) The construction is based on the notions of colouring of right-angled polytopes and of mutation (cutting along a totally geodesic hypersurface and regluing by an isometry). A compact right-angled polytope \(\mathcal{P}^4\) found by \textit{L. Potyagailo} and \textit{E. Vinberg} [Comment. Math. Helv. 80, No. 1, 63--73 (2005; Zbl 1072.20046)] is used to construct a highly symmetric 4-manifold with ten cusps, and which contains two disjoint totally geodesic hypersurfaces. These are properly embedded but non-compact, and mutations along these give the desired examples. The paper is largely concerned with the combinatorics of colourings of \(\mathcal{P}^4\), and is clearly written and very explicit.