Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
A compact, orientable 3-manifold M is called hyperbolic if int M admits a complete hyperbolic structure (Riemannian metric of constant curvature − 1) of finite volume. Any hyperbolic 3-manifold M is irreducible, and each component of ∂M is an incompressible torus. Let f: M → N be a proper, continuous map between hyperbolic 3-manifolds. By Mostow's Rigidity Theorem [8], if f is π1-isomorphic then f is properly homotopic to a diffeomorphism g: M → N such that g | int M: int M → int N is isometric. In particular, the topological type of int M determines uniquely the hyperbolic structure on int M up to isometry, so the volume vol (int M) of int M is well-defined. This Rigidity Theorem is generalized by Thurston[11, theorem 6·4] so that any proper, continuous map f:M → N between hyperbolic 3-manifolds with vol(int M) = deg(f) vol(int N) is properly homotopic to a deg(f)-fold covering g:M → N such that g | int M: int M → int N is locally isometric.