Geometric limits of knot complements

Abstract

We prove that any complete hyperbolic 3--manifold with finitely generated fundamental group, with a single topological end, and which embeds into $\BS^3$ is the geometric limit of a sequence of hyperbolic knot complements in $\BS^3$. In particular, we derive the existence of hyperbolic knot complements which contain balls of arbitrarily large radius. We also show that a complete hyperbolic 3--manifold with two convex cocompact ends cannot be a geometric limit of knot complements in $\BS^3$.