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Abstract for MSRI Preprint 1997-052

Finite-volume hyperbolic 4-manifolds that share a fundamental polyhedron

Dubravko Ivanšić

It is known that the volume function for hyperbolic manifolds of dimension $\geq 3$ is finite-to-one. We show that the number of nonhomeomorphic hyperbolic 4-manifolds with the same volume can be made arbitrarily large. This is done by constructing a sequence of finite-sided finite-volume polyhedra with side-pairings that yield manifolds. In fact, we show that arbitrarily many nonhomeomorphic hyperbolic 4-manifolds may share a fundamental polyhedron. As a by-product of our examples, we also show in a constructive way that the set of volumes of hyperbolic 4-manifolds contains the set of even integral multiples of $4\pi^2/3$. This is "half" the set of possible values for volumes, which is the integral multiples of $4\pi^2/3$ due to the Gauss-Bonnet formula.