Volume functions and boundary data of 3-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds

Abstract

We review recent progress on two closely related sets of questions concerning convex co-compact hyperbolic manifolds, or convex domains in those manifolds, such as their convex core. The first set of questions is to what extent the hyperbolic metric on such a manifold is uniquely determined by either of two possible geometric data on their boundary. The second aspect is the ``volume'' associated to such a manifold, such as the renormalized volume of a convex co-compact hyperbolic manifold. The relation between the two is provided by the first variation of the volume functions, which involves the two kinds of boundary data as ``conjugate'' variables. While progress has recently been made on some questions, others remain open. New connections have recently emerged, with physics (and in particular the AdS/CFT correspondence) as well as with probability theory (the Loewner energy).