  In this paper we consider the analytic torsion of a closed hyperbolic
3-manifold associated with the m-th symmetric power of the standard
representation of SL(2,C) and we study its asymptotic behavior if m tends to
infinity. The leading coefficient of the asymptotic formula is given by the
volume of the hyperbolic 3-manifold. It follows that the Reidemeister torsion
associated with the symmetric powers determines the volume of a closed
hyperbolic 3-manifold.
