Finite groups and hyperbolic manifolds.

Abstract

The isometry group of a compact n-dimensional hyperbolic manifold is known to be finite. We show that for every n≥2, every finite group is realized as the full isometry group of some compact hyperbolic n-manifold. The cases n=2 and n=3 have been proven by Greenberg (1974) and Kojima (1988), respectively. Our proof is non constructive: it uses counting results from subgroup growth theory to show that such manifolds exist.