The minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifold with 4 cusps (Q395039)

The paper is concerned with the problem of determining the minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds with given number of cusps. \textit{D. Gabai} et al. [J. Am. Math. Soc. 22, No. 4, 1157--1215 (2009; Zbl 1204.57013)] showed that the Weeks-Matveev-Fomenko manifold has minimal volume among closed manifolds. \textit{C. Cao} and \textit{G. R. Meyerhoff} [Invent. Math. 146, No. 3, 451--478 (2001; Zbl 1028.57010)] showed that the figure-eight knot complement and its sister have minimal volume among manifolds with one cusp. \textit{I. Agol} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 138, No. 10, 3723--3732 (2010; Zbl 1203.57006)] showed that the \((-2,3,8)\)--pretzel link complement and the Whitehead link complement have minimal volume among manifolds with two cusps. In the present paper it is shown that the \(8^{4}_{2}\) link complement is the minimal volume orientable hyperbolic manifold with four cusps. Its volume is twice the volume \(v_{8}\) of the ideal regular octahedron; that is, \(7,32\ldots = 2 v_{8}\). The proof relies on Agol's argument used to determine the minimal volume hyperbolic 3-manifolds with 2 cusps. Also the author estimates the volume of a hyperbolic 3-manifold with totally geodesic boundary which contains an essential surface with non-separating boundary.