Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 November 2010
Let (M,gλ) be a 𝒞2-family of complete convex-cocompact metrics with pinched negative sectional curvatures on a fixed manifold. We show that the topological entropy htop(gλ) of the geodesic flow is a 𝒞1 function of λ and we give an explicit formula for its derivative. We apply this to show that if ρλ(Γ)⊂PSL2(ℂ) is an analytic family of convex-cocompact faithful representations of a Kleinian group Γ, then the Hausdorff dimension of the limit set Λρλ(Γ) is a 𝒞1 function of λ. Finally, we give a variation formula for Λρλ (Γ).