Thick hyperbolic 3-manifolds with bounded rank

We construct a geometric decomposition for the convex core of a thick hyperbolic 3-manifold M with bounded rank. Corollaries include upper bounds in terms of rank and injectivity radius on the Heegaard genus of M and on the radius of any embedded ball in the convex core of M.Comment: 170 pages, 17 figure

Extending pseudo-Anosov maps to compression bodies

We show that a pseudo-Anosov map on a boundary component of an irreducible 3-manifold has a power that partially extends to the interior if and only if its (un)stable lamination is a projective limit of meridians. The proof is through 3-dimensional hyperbolic geometry, and involves an investigation of algebraic limits of convex cocompact compression bodies.Comment: 29 page

Realising end invariants by limits of minimally parabolic, geometrically finite groups

We shall show that for a given homeomorphism type and a set of end invariants (including the parabolic locus) with necessary topological conditions which a topologically tame Kleinian group with that homeomorphism type must satisfy, there is an algebraic limit of minimally parabolic, geometrically finite Kleinian groups which has exactly that homeomorphism type and end invariants. This shows that the Bers-Sullivan-Thurston density conjecture follows from Marden's conjecture proved by Agol, Calegari-Gabai combined with Thurston's uniformisation theorem and the ending lamination conjecture proved by Minsky, partially collaborating with Masur, Brock and Canary.Comment: fourth version: Introduction rewritten; some arguments in Sec. 5 and 6 clarified