This is the first comprehensive treatment of the geometry of complex hyperbolic space, a rich area of research with numerous connections to other branches of mathematics, including Riemannian geometry, complex analysis, symplectic and contact geometry, Lie groups, and harmonic analysis.

Since the appearance of Kobayashi's book, there have been several re sults at the basic level of hyperbolic spaces, for instance Brody's theorem, and results of Green, Kiernan, Kobayashi, Noguchi, etc. which make it worthwhile to have a systematic exposition. Although of necessity I re produce some theorems from Kobayashi, I take a different direction, with different applications in mind, so the present book does not super sede Kobayashi's. My interest in these matters stems from their relations with diophan tine geometry. Indeed, if X is a projective variety over the complex numbers, then I conjecture that X is hyperbolic if and only if X has only a finite number of rational points in every finitely generated field over the rational numbers. There are also a number of subsidiary conjectures related to this one. These conjectures are qualitative. Vojta has made quantitative conjectures by relating the Second Main Theorem of Nevan linna theory to the theory of heights, and he has conjectured bounds on heights stemming from inequalities having to do with diophantine approximations and implying both classical and modern conjectures. Noguchi has looked at the function field case and made substantial progress, after the line started by Grauert and Grauert-Reckziegel and continued by a recent paper of Riebesehl. The book is divided into three main parts: the basic complex analytic theory, differential geometric aspects, and Nevanlinna theory. Several chapters of this book are logically independent of each other.

This monograph lays down the foundations of the theory of complex Kleinian groups, a newly born area of mathematics whose origin traces back to the work of Riemann, Poincaré, Picard and many others. Kleinian groups are, classically, discrete groups of conformal automorphisms of the Riemann sphere, and these can be regarded too as being groups of holomorphic automorphisms of the complex projective line CP1. When going into higher dimensions, there is a dichotomy: Should we look at conformal automorphisms of the n-sphere?, or should we look at holomorphic automorphisms of higher dimensional complex projective spaces? These two theories are different in higher dimensions. In the first case we are talking about groups of isometries of real hyperbolic spaces, an area of mathematics with a long-standing tradition. In the second case we are talking about an area of mathematics that still is in its childhood, and this is the focus of study in this monograph. This brings together several important areas of mathematics, as for instance classical Kleinian group actions, complex hyperbolic geometry, chrystallographic groups and the uniformization problem for complex manifolds.​

In the three decades since the introduction of the Kobayashi distance, the subject of hyperbolic complex spaces and holomorphic mappings has grown to be a big industry. This book gives a comprehensive and systematic account on the Carathéodory and Kobayashi distances, hyperbolic complex spaces and holomorphic mappings with geometric methods. A very complete list of references should be useful for prospective researchers in this area.

This work and its companion volume form the collected papers from two symposia held at Durham and Warwick in 1984. Volume I contains an expository account by David Epstein and his students of certain parts of Thurston's famous mimeographed notes. This is preceded by a clear and comprehensive account by S. J. Patterson of his fundamental work on measures on limit sets of Kleinian groups.

Thoroughly updated, featuring new material on important topics such as hyperbolic geometry in higher dimensions and generalizations of hyperbolicity Includes full solutions for all exercises Successful first edition sold over 800 copies in North America