Geometry and topology of complex hyperbolic and Cauchy-Riemannian manifolds (Q4232010)

This survey presents recent progress in studying the topology and geometry of complex hyperbolic manifolds \(M\) with variable negative curvature and spherical Cauchy-Riemannian manifolds with Carnot-Carathéodory structure at infinity \(M_\infty.\) Among negatively curved manifolds, the class of complex hyperbolic manifolds occupies a distinguished niche for several reasons. First, such manifolds furnish the simplest examples of negatively curved Kähler manifolds, and due to their complex analytic nature, a broad spectrum of techniques can contribute to the study. At the same time, the absolutes of such manifolds, that is, the spherical Cauchy-Riemannian manifolds, furnish the simplest examples of manifolds with contact structures. Second, such manifolds provide the simplest examples of negatively curved manifolds not having constant sectional curvature, and results already obtained show surprising differences between the geometry and topology of such manifolds and corresponding properties of (real hyperbolic) manifolds with constant negative curvature. Third, such manifolds occupy a remarkable place among rank-one symmetric spaces in the sense of their deformations: they enjoy the flexibility of low-dimensional real hyperbolic manifolds as well as the rigidity of quaternionic/octonionic hyperbolic manifolds and higher-rank locally symmetric spaces. Finally, since its inception, the theory of smooth 4-manifolds has relied upon complex surface theory to provide its basic examples. Nowadays it pays back, and one can study complex analytic 2-manifolds by using Seiberg-Witten invariants, decomposition of 4-manifolds along homology 3-spheres. Complex hyperbolic geometry is the geometry of the unit ball \(\mathbb B_{\mathbb C}^n\) in \(\mathbb C^n\) with the Kähler structure given by the Bergman metric, whose automorphisms are biholomorphic automorphisms of the ball, that is, elements of \(PU(n,1).\) In this paper the author studies the topology and geometry of complex hyperbolic manifolds by using spherical Cauchy-Riemannian geometry at their absolutes. This CR-geometry is modelled on the one-point compactification of the (nilpotent) Heisenberg group, which appears as the sphere at infinity of the complex hyperbolic space \(\mathbb H_{\mathbb C}^n.\) Contents: Introduction. Complex hyperbolic and Heisenberg manifolds. Discrete actions on nilpotent groups and Heisenberg manifolds. Geometrical finiteness in complex hyperbolic geometry. Complex homology cobordisms and the boundary at infinity. Homeomorphisms induced by group isomorphisms. Deformations of complex hyperbolic and CR-structures: flexibility versus rigidity.