Hyperbolic cone-manifolds, short geodesics, and Schwarzian derivatives

Abstract

Given a geometrically finite hyperbolic cone-manifold, with the cone-singularity sufficiently short, we construct a one-parameter family of cone-manifolds decreasing the cone-angle to zero. We also control the geometry of this one-parameter family via the Schwarzian derivative of the projective boundary and the length of closed geodesics.