Asymptotically geodesic surfaces

A sequence of distinct closed surfaces in a hyperbolic 3-manifold M is asymptotically geodesic if their principal curvatures tend uniformly to zero. When M has finite volume, we show such sequences are always asymptotically dense in the 2-plane Grassmann bundle of M. When M has infinite volume and is geometrically finite, we show such sequences do not exist. As an application of the former, we obtain partial answers to the question of whether a negatively curved Riemannian 3-manifold that contains a sequence of asymptotically totally geodesic or totally umbilic surfaces must be hyperbolic. Finally, we give examples to show that if the dimension of M is greater than 3, the possible limiting behavior of asymptotically geodesic surfaces is less constrained than for totally geodesic surfaces.