COVERING PROPERTIES OF SMALL VOLUME HYPERBOLIC 3-MANIFOLDS

Closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds obtained by Dehn surgeries on the Whitehead link yield interesting examples of manifolds of small volume. In the present paper these manifolds are described as 2-fold coverings of the 3-sphere branched over 3-bridge links. As a corollary, maximally symmetric -manifolds of small volume are obtained.