Geodesic knots in closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds

DOI10.1007/S10711-007-9227-8MaRDI QIDQ2481656zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Sally M. Kuhlmann

Publication date 14 April 2008

Published in Geometriae Dedicata (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/s10711-007-9227-8

zbMATH Keywords

closed geodesics Hodgson-Weeks census hyperbolic geometry

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Geodesics in global differential geometry (53C22)

Review text

In general, one expects that most geodesics in \(3\)-manifolds are simple and one would expect to find many simple closed geodesics in an arbitrary \(3\)-manifold. However, it is still unknown if every hyperbolic \(3\)-manifold contains infinitely many simple closed geodesics. In this paper, the author presents a condition that implies the existence of infinitely many distinct simple closed geodesics. To understand this condition recall that any simple closed geodesic in a hyperbolic \(3\)-manifold has a well-defined holonomy. Then, one can define a notion of second angle by considering two closest lifts of the simple closed geodesic to the universal cover and an isometry taking one to the other. Her theorem states that a hyperbolic \(3\)-manifold contains an infinite number of simple closed geodesics provided that the second angle is not a multiple of the holonomy and provided that a certain limiting geodesic is embedded and disjoint from the original simple closed geodesic. The simple closed geodesics that she constructs are all projections of the axes of isometries formed by composing the isometry taking one lift of the original geodesic to the other lift together with a high power of the isometry of the cover defining the original geodesic. The limiting geodesic from the theorem is obtained in the limit as this power goes to infinity. The proof of this theorem is an interesting mix of hyperbolic geometry and Diophantine approximation. At first it may appear that it would be difficult to check the conditions in the theorem. After presenting the proof of the theorem, Kuhlmann presents an algorithm that in many cases checks whether the conditions hold or not. She then presents the results of a computer calculation proving that \(178\) of the first \(200\) manifolds in the Hodgson-Weeks census do posses an infinite number of simple closed geodesics.

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