Quasi-Fuchsian manifolds close to the Fuchsian locus are foliated by constant mean curvature surfaces

Abstract

The main subject of this thesis are a certain class of hyperbolic 3-manifolds called quasi-Fuchsian manifold. Given an orientied, closed hyperbolic surface S, these manifolds are homeomorphic to S × R. We study two questions regarding them: one is on measured foliations at infinity and the other is on foliation by constant mean curvature surfaces.Measured foliations at infinity of quasi-Fuchsian manifolds are a natural analog at infinity to the measured bending laminations on the boundary of its convex core. Given a pair of measured foliations (F+, F−) which fill a closed hyperbolic surface S and are arational, we prove that for t > 0 sufficiently small tF+ and tF− can be uniquely realised as the measured foliations at infinity of a quasi-Fuchsian manifold homeomorphic to S × R, which is sufficiently close to the Fuchsian locus. The proof is based on that of Bonahon in [5] which shows that a quasi-Fuchsian manifold close to the Fuchsian locus can be uniquely determined by the data of filling measured bending laminations on the boundary of its convex core. Finally, we interpret the result in half-pipe geometry.For the second part of the thesis we deal with a conjecture due to Thurston asks if almost-Fuchsian manifolds admit a foliation by CMC surfaces. Here, almost-Fuchsian manifolds are defined as quasi-Fuchsian manifolds which contain a unique minimal surface with principal curvatures in (−1, 1) and it is known that in general, quasi-Fuchsian manifolds are not foliated by surfaces of constant mean curvature (CMC) although their ends are. However, we prove that almost-Fuchsian manifolds which are sufficiently close to being Fuchsian are indeed monotoni-cally foliated by surfaces of constant mean curvature. This work is in collaboration with Filippo Mazzoli and Andrea Seppi.1. The Codazzi equation, d ∇ h = 0, where ∇ is the Levi-Civita connection of g.