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arXiv · 0804.0043

The minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 2-cusped 3-manifolds

Ian Agol
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Abstract

We prove that the Whitehead link complement and the (-2, 3, 8) pretzel link complement are the minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 3-manifolds with two cusps, with volume 3.66... = 4 x Catalan's constant. We use topological arguments to establish the existence of an essential surface which provides a lower bound on volume and strong constraints on the manifolds that realize that lower bound.

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Ian Agol. 2008-03-31. The minimal volume orientable hyperbolic 2-cusped 3-manifolds. https://doi.org/10.1090/s0002-9939-10-10364-5

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