Kleinian groups and the complex of curves

Minsky, Yair N¹

¹ Department of Mathematics, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA

Geometry & topology, Tome 4 (2000) no. 1, pp. 117-148.

Résumé

We examine the internal geometry of a Kleinian surface group and its relations to the asymptotic geometry of its ends, using the combinatorial structure of the complex of curves on the surface. Our main results give necessary conditions for the Kleinian group to have ‘bounded geometry’ (lower bounds on injectivity radius) in terms of a sequence of coefficients (subsurface projections) computed using the ending invariants of the group and the complex of curves.

These results are directly analogous to those obtained in the case of punctured-torus surface groups. In that setting the ending invariants are points in the closed unit disk and the coefficients are closely related to classical continued-fraction coefficients. The estimates obtained play an essential role in the solution of Thurston’s ending lamination conjecture in that case.

Détail

DOI : 10.2140/gt.2000.4.117

Keywords: Kleinian group, ending lamination, complex of curves, pleated surface, bounded geometry, injectivity radius

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