arXiv research

Study contact structures on projective spaces, proving infinite non-isotopic structures.

We apply contact homology to obtain new results in the problem of distinguishing immersed plane curves without dangerous self-tangencies.

The study finds many tight contact structures on hyperbolic 3-spheres.

We study the sectional curvature of plane distributions on 3-manifolds. We show that if the distribution is a contact structure it is easy to manipulate this curvature. As a corollary we obtain that for every transversally oriented contact structure on a closed 3-dimensional manifold $M$ there is a metric, such that th…

We study the geometry of the cuspidal edge $M$ in $\mathbb R^3$ derived from its contact with planes and lines (referred to as flat geometry). The contact of $M$ with planes is measured by the singularities of the height functions on $M$. We classify submersions on a model of $M$ by diffeomorphisms and recover the cont…

We study vector fields of the plane preserving the form of Liouville. We present their local models up to the natural equivalence relation, and describe local bifurcations of low codimension. To achieve that, a classification of univariate functions is given, according to a relation stricter than contact equivalence. W…

The paper is devoted to the complete classification of all real Lie algebras of contact vector fields on the first jet space of one-dimensional submanifolds in the plane. This completes Sophus Lie's classification of all possible Lie algebras of contact symmetries for ordinary differential equations. As a main tool we …

Contact structures are induced by nondegenerate skew fibrations of R^3.

We show that any co-orientable foliation of dimension two on a closed orientable $3$-manifold with continuous tangent plane field can be $C^0$-approximated by both positive and negative contact structures unless all the leaves are simply connected. As applications we deduce that the existence of a taut $C^0$-foliation …

Study lifts plane mappings to Heisenberg group.

We present a sketch of the proof of the following theorems: (1) Every 3-manifold has only finitely many homotopy classes of 2-plane fields which carry tight contact structures. (2) Every closed atoroidal 3-manifold carries finitely many isotopy classes of tight contact structures.

Investigate the local geometry of smooth surfaces in 4-space via contact with 2-planes and apparent contours.

We show that an immersed minimal annulus, with two planar boundary curves along which the surface meets these planes with constant contact angle, is part of the catenoid.

Let V be a closed 3-manifold. In this paper we prove that the homotopy classes of plane fields on V that contain tight contact structures are in finite number and that, if V is atoroidal, the isotopy classes of tight contact structures are also in finite number.

Study shows curves converge to traveling waves under specific conditions.

We consider the dynamics of vector fields on three-manifolds which are constrained to lie within a plane field, such as occurs in nonholonomic dynamics. On compact manifolds, such vector fields force dynamics beyond that of a gradient flow, except in cases where the underlying manifold is topologically simple. Furtherm…

The Whitney-Graustein theorem states that regular closed curves in the 2-plane are classified, up to regular homotopy, by their rotation number. Here we give a simple proof based on contact geometry.

We identify the canonical contact structure on the link of a simple elliptic or cusp singularity by drawing a Legendrian handlebody diagram of one of its Stein fillings. We also show that the canonical contact structure on the link of a numerically Gorenstein surface singularity is trivial considered as a real plane bu…

We use the generalized Pontryagin-Thom construction to analyze the effect of attaching a bypass on the homotopy class of the contact structure. In particular, given a 3-dimensional contact manifold with convex boundary, we show that the bypass triangle attachment changes the homotopy class of the contact structure rela…

We show that the topological classification and the smooth classification are generically the same for certain families of plane curves in a semi-local case(the double local case). Especially we give the normal form of transversely jointed two families of plane curves with second order contact at the envelope.

It is well known that Cayley's ruled cubic surface carries a three-parameter family of twisted cubics sharing a common point, with the same tangent and the same osculating plane. We report on various results and open problems with respect to contact of higher order and dual contact of higher order for these curves.

The paper defines ASD connections and constructs families over a 5D Heisenberg group.

For a closed oriented 3-manifold Y, we define an absolute grading on the Heegaard Floer homology groups of Y by homotopy classes of oriented 2-plane fields. We show that this absolute grading refines the relative one and that it is compatible with the maps induced by cobordisms. We also prove that if ξ is a contact str…

New kinematic model for a spin-rolling sphere using Darboux frame.

New findings on great circle fibrations and contact structures on odd spheres.

Defines contact surgery distance and shows it's bounded by topological surgery distance by 5.

Abstract: Study Hamiltonian systems on almost cosymplectic manifolds, extending contact Hamiltonian systems.

There is a remarkable type of field of two-planes special to four dimensions known as an Engel distributions. They are the only stable regular distributions besides the contact, quasi-contact and line fields. If an arbitrary two-plane field on a four-manifold is slightly perturbed then it will be Engel at generic point…

We determine the relationship between the contact structure induced by a fibered knot, K, in the three-sphere and the contact structures induced by its various cables. Understanding this relationship allows us to classify fibered cable knots which bound a properly embedded complex curve in the four-ball satisfying a ge…

Augmentations and sheaves linked for Legendrian graphs.

An Engel structure is a maximally non-integrable field of two-planes tangent to a four-manifold. Any two such structures are locally diffeomorphic. We investigate the space of global deformations of canonical Engel structures arising out of contact three-manifolds. The main tool is Cartan's method of prolongation and d…

In 1989, Y. Eliashberg proved that two overtwisted contact structures on a closed oriented 3-manifold are isotopic if and only if they are homotopic as 2-plane fields. We provide an alternative proof of this theorem using the convex surface theory and bypasses.

Great circle fibrations on 3-sphere yield tight contact structures.

We discuss the theorem on the existence of six points on a convex closed plane curve in which the curve has a contact of order six with the osculating conic. (This is the ``projective version'' of the well known four vertices theorem for a curve in the Euclidean plane.) We obtain this classical fact as a corollary of s…

On every compact and orientable three-manifold, we construct total foliations (three codimension 1 foliations that are transverse at every point). This construction can be performed on any homotopy class of plane fields with vanishing Euler class. As a corollary we obtain similar results on bi-contact structures.

The paper explores CR structures and their leaf spaces in semi-Riemannian manifolds.

We show that on any closed contact manifold of dimension greater than 1 a contact structure with vanishing contact homology can be constructed. The basic idea for the construction comes from Giroux. We use a special open book decomposition for spheres. The page is the cotangent bundle of a sphere and the monodromy is g…

We study the integral expression of a knot invariant obtained as the second coefficient in the perturbative expansion of Witten's Chern-Simons path integral associated with a knot. One of the integrals involved turns out to be a generalization of the classical Crofton integral on convex plane curves and it is related w…

In this paper, the HyperKahler contact distribution of a 3-Sasakian manifold is studied. To analyze the curvature properties of this distribution, the special metric connection $\bar{\nabla}$ is defined. This metric connection is completely determined by HyperKahler contact distribution. We prove that HyperKahler conta…

In two previous papers, the two first-named authors introduced a notion of contact r-surgery along Legendrian knots in contact 3-manifolds. They also showed how (at least in principle) to convert any contact r-surgery into a sequence of contact plus or minus 1 surgeries, and used this to prove that any (closed) contact…

We find a general solution to the unique 7th order ODE admitting ten dimensional group of contact symmetries. The integral curves of this ODE are rational contact curves in $\PP^3$ which give rise to rational plane curves of degree six. The moduli space of these curves is a real form of the homogeneous space $Sp(4)/SL(…

The paper provides an algorithm to create curves touching a smooth cubic at specific intersection points.

In this paper, we introduce a geometric structure called top, which is a trivialized bundle of plane pencils over a Riemannian 3-manifold, defined as the set of kernels of a circle of 1-forms (e.g. of contact and integrable forms) with particular properties with respect to the metric. We classify the manifolds which ad…

New foliations constructed from contact pairs, revealing flexible taut foliations.

In this work we consider a class of contact manifolds $(M,η)$ with an associated almost contact metric structure $(φ, ξ, η,g)$. This class contains, for example, nearly cosymplectic manifolds and the manifolds in the class $C_9\oplus C_{10}$ defined by Chinea and Gonzalez. All manifolds in the class considered turn out…

Researchers extend Godbillon-Vey functional to almost contact manifolds, finding critical structures.

We extend the Eliashberg-Thurston theorem on approximations of taut oriented $C^2$-foliations of 3-manifolds by both positive and negative contact structures to a large class of taut oriented $C^{1,0}$-foliations, where by $C^{1,0}$ foliation, we mean a foliation with continuous tangent plane field. These $C^{1,0}$-fol…

We study equivariant contact structures on complex projective varieties arising as partial flag varieties $G/P$, where $G$ is a connected, simply-connected complex simple group of type $ADE$ and $P$ is a parabolic subgroup. We prove a special case of the LeBrun-Salamon conjecture for partial flag varieties of these typ…