Cone metrics on the sphere and Livné's lattices
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Cone metrics on the sphere and Livné's lattices
zbMATH Open document ID: 1100.57017
author: John R. Parker
published in: Acta Mathematica
publication date: 2006-08-24T00:00:00Z
review text: In his dissertation, R. Livné constructed a family of lattices in \(\text{PU}(1,2)\), the isometries of complex \(2\)-dimensional hyperbolic space. An alternative construction was given by \textit{W. Thurston} [Shapes of polyhedra and triangulations of the sphere, The Epstein Birthday Schrift dedicated to David Epstein on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Warwick: University of Warwick, Institute of Mathematics, Geom. Topol. Monogr. 1, 511--549 (1998; Zbl 0931.57010)]. His method was to consider Euclidean cone metrics of the \(2\)-sphere with five cone points and certain prescribed cone angles. An automorphism of the cone metric gives rise to a unitary matrix in \(\text{U}(1,2)\). Each similarity class of cone metrics corresponds to a positive point in \(\text{\textbf{P}}(\text{\textbf{C}}^{1,2})\), that is, a point in complex hyperbolic space, and the automorphisms of similarity classes correspond to complex hyperbolic isometries. Under certain conditions, the groups \(\Gamma\) generated by these automorphisms turn out to be Livné lattices. In this paper, the author reworks Thurston's approach in considerable depth. Explicit fundamental domains for the actions on complex hyperbolic space are constructed and completely understood. Discreteness of the groups is proven using the Poincaré polyhedron theorem, yielding also simple finite presentations for the groups. Additional presentations are obtained that reveal other structure of the groups; in particular, that they contain triangle groups as normal subgroups. The paper is carefully written, and noteworthy for its use of explicit computation while keeping the underlying geometry in view.
reviewed by: Darryl McCullough
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 57M50
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 22E10
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 22E40
zbMATH DE Number: 5049050
zbMATH Keywords: sphere
zbMATH Keywords: cone
zbMATH Keywords: metric
zbMATH Keywords: deformation
zbMATH Keywords: complex
zbMATH Keywords: hyperbolic
zbMATH Keywords: isometry
zbMATH Keywords: discrete
zbMATH Keywords: subgroup
zbMATH Keywords: lattice
zbMATH Keywords: presentation
zbMATH Keywords: triangle group
MaRDI profile type: MaRDI publication profile
full work available at URL: s11511-006-0001-9
OpenAlex ID: W2069100136
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DOI: 10.1007/S11511-006-0001-9
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 5049050