arXiv research

In this paper, we study strong symplectic fillability and Stein fillability of some tight contact structures on negative parabolic and negative hyperbolic torus bundles over the circle. For the universally tight contact structure with twisting $π$ in $S^1$-direction on a negative parabolic torus bundle, we completely d…

Study finds all Brieskorn spheres with at most two fillable contact structures.

The paper explores nonexistence and existence of symplectic and Stein fillable contact structures on 3-manifolds.

We make some elementary observations concerning subcritically Stein fillable contact structures on 5-manifolds. Specifically, we determine the diffeomorphism type of such contact manifolds in the case the fundamental group is finite cyclic, and we show that on the 5-sphere the standard contact structure is the unique s…

In this article we provide an infinite family of weakly symplectically fillable contact structures with trivial Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariants over Z/2Z. As a consequence of this fact, we show how Heegaard-Floer theory can distinguish between weakly and strongly fillable contact structures.

Positive surgery on knots in weakly fillable 3-manifolds yields weakly fillable contact structures.

Study shows patterns in Stein fillability of trefoil surgeries.

New method shows some 3D shapes can't be filled in certain ways.

We study weak versus strong symplectic fillability of some tight contact structures on torus bundles over the circle. In particular, we prove that almost all of these tight contact structures are weakly, but not strongly symplectically fillable. For the 3-torus this theorem was established by Eliashberg.

On small Seifert fibered spaces $M(e_0;r_1,r_2,r_3)$ with $e_0\neq-1,-2,$ all tight contact structures are Stein fillable. This is not the case for $e_0=-1$ or $-2$. However, for negative twisting structures it is expected that they are all symplectically fillable. Here, we characterize fillable structures among zero-t…

We study the fillability (or embeddability) of $CR$ structures under the gauge-fixed Cartan flow. We prove that if the initial $CR$ structure is fillable with nowhere vanishing Tanaka-Webster curvature and free torsion, then it keeps having the same property after a short time. In the Appendix, we show the uniqueness o…

We continue our study of contact structures on manifolds of dimension at least five using complex surgery theory. We show that in each dimension 2q+1 > 3 there are 'maximal' almost contact manifolds to which there is a Stein cobordism from any other (2q+1)-dimensional contact manifold. We show that the product M x S^2 …

Study confoliations' symplectic fillability, finding obstructions.

We give a bordism-theoretic characterisation of those closed almost contact (2q+1)-manifolds (with q > 2) which admit a Stein fillable contact structure. Our method is to apply Eliashberg's h-principle for Stein manifolds in the setting of Kreck's modified surgery. As an application, we show that any simply connected a…

Stein fillability of circle bundles over symplectic manifolds is restricted.

The paper proves almost positive links can be filled with Lagrangian structures.

New open books solve a long-standing surface mapping class group question.

In this paper, we find infinite hyperbolic 3-manifolds that admit no weakly symplectically fillable contact structures, using tools in Heegaard Floer theory. We also remark that part of these manifolds do admit tight contact structures.

In this short note, we exhibit an infinite family of hyperbolic rational homology $3$--spheres which do not admit any fillable contact structures. We also note that most of these manifolds do admit tight contact structures.

We describe Legendrian surgery diagrams for some horizontal contact structures on non-positive plumbing trees of oriented circle bundles over spheres with negative Euler numbers. As an application we determine Milnor fillable contact structures on some Milnor fillable 3-manifolds.

The study finds tight contact structures without fillings in high dimensions.

New open books defy positive factorisation in genus one.

A geometric obstruction, the so called "plastikstufe", for a contact structure to not being fillable has been found by K. Niederkruger. This generalizes somehow the concept of overtwisted structure to dimensions higher than 3. This paper elaborates on the theory showing a big number of closed contact manifolds with a "…

Extending our earlier results, we prove that certain tight contact structures on circle bundles over surfaces are not symplectically semi--fillable, thus confirming a conjecture of Ko Honda.

Extending work of Chen, we prove the Weinstein conjecture in dimension three for strongly fillable contact structures with either non-vanishing first Chern class or with strong and exact filling having non-trivial canonical bundle. This implies the Weinstein conjecture for certain Stein fillable contact structures obta…

Classifies negative-twisting structures on Seifert fibred spaces using Heegaard Floer homology.

Bourgeois structures are tight in 5D and provide symplectic fillability obstructions.

We study the fillability (or embeddability) of 3-dimensional $CR$ structures under the geometric flows. Suppose we can solve a certain second order equation for the geometric quantity associated to the flow. Then we prove that if the initial $CR$ structure is fillable, then it keeps having the same property as long as …

Recently Francisco Presas Mata constructed the first examples of closed contact manifolds of dimension larger than 3 that contain a plastikstufe, and hence are non-fillable. Using contact surgery on his examples we create on every sphere S^{2n-1}, n>1, an exotic contact structure ξ_- that also contains a plastikstufe. …

We define symplectic fractional twists, which generalize Dehn twists, and use these in open books to investigate contact structures. The resulting contact structures are invariant under a circle action, and share several similarities with the invariant contact structures that were studied by Lutz and Giroux. We show th…

Classifies tight contact structures on surgeries of the Whitehead link.

We study fillings of contact structures supported by planar open books by analyzing positive factorizations of their monodromy. Our method is based on Wendl's theorem on symplectic fillings of planar open books. We prove that every virtually overtwisted contact structure on L(p,1) has a unique filling, and describe fil…

In this note we make several observations concerning symplectic fillings. In particular we show that a (strongly or weakly) semi-fillable contact structure is fillable and any filling embeds as a symplectic domain in a closed symplectic manifold. We also relate properties of the open book decomposition of a contact man…

We define an invariant of contact structures in dimension three from Heegaard Floer homology. This invariant takes values in the set $\mathbb{Z}_{\geq0}\cup\{\infty\}$. It is zero for overtwisted contact structures, $\infty$ for Stein fillable contact structures, non-decreasing under Legendrian surgery, and computable …

The study confirms the non-existence of rational homology ball symplectic fillings for certain Brieskorn spheres.

Study tight contact structures on figure-eight knot surgeries.

We construct, somewhat non-standard, Legendrian surgery diagrams for some Stein fillable contact structures on some plumbing trees of circle bundles over spheres. We then show how to put such a surgery diagram on the pages of an open book for $S^3,$ with relatively low genus. Thus we produce open books with low genus p…

Embeds all contact 3-manifolds into specific 5-manifolds.

We use the Ozsvath-Szabo contact invariant to produce examples of strongly symplectically fillable contact 3-manifolds which are not Stein fillable.

We give examples of contact structures which admit exact symplectic fillings, but no Stein fillings, answering a question of Ghiggini.

The paper solves when surgeries on Legendrian knots yield symplectically fillable contact manifolds.

A two-dimensional open book (S,h) determines a closed, oriented three-manifold Y(S,h) and a contact structure C(S,h) on Y(S,h). The contact structure C(S,h) is Stein fillable if h is positive, i.e. h can be written as a product of right-handed Dehn twists. Work of Wendl implies that when S has genus zero the converse s…

The study connects periodic surface homeomorphisms to contact structures using rational open books.

We define the reduced Khovanov homology of an open book (S,h), and we identify a distinguished "contact element" in this group which may be used to establish the tightness or non-fillability of contact structures compatible with (S,h). Our construction generalizes the relationship between the reduced Khovanov homology …

Study non-fillable curves in a hyperbolic surface with a real line.

Classifies contact structures on negative-definite Seifert fibred spaces.

The paper disproves a conjecture about 3D manifolds using even lattice points.

Study embeds ruled surfaces into symplectic manifolds, finds Stein fillability results.