The visual core of a hyperbolic 3-manifold

In this note we introduce the notion of the visual core of a hyperbolic 3-manifold , and explore some of its basic properties. We investigate circumstances under which the visual core of a cover of N embeds in N, via the usual covering map . We go on to show that if the algebraic limit of a sequence of isomorphic Kleinian groups is a generalized web group, then the visual core of the algebraic limit manifold embeds in the geometric limit manifold. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the visual core and Klein-Maskit combination along component subgroups. Received: 16 March 1999 / Revised version: 14 May 2001 / Published online: 19 October 2001