English

Non-loose unknots, overtwisted discs, and the contact mapping class group of $S^3$

Symplectic Geometry 2017-12-15 v2 Geometric Topology

Abstract

We classify Legendrian unknots in overtwisted contact structures on S3S^3. In particular, we show that up to contact isotopy for every pair (n,±(n1))(n,\pm(n-1)) with n>0n>0 there are exactly two oriented non-loose Legendrian unknots in S3S^3 with Thurston-Bennequin invariant nn and rotation number ±(n1)\pm(n-1). (Only one overtwisted contact structure on S3S^3 admits a non-loose unknot KK and the classical invariants have to be tb(K)=n\mathrm{tb}(K)=n and rot(K)=±(n1)\mathrm{rot}(K)=\pm(n-1) for n>1n>1.) This can be used to prove two results attributed to Y.~Che\-kan\-ov: The first implies that the contact mapping class group of an overtwisted contact structure on S3S^3 depends on the contact structure. The second result is that the identity component of the contactomorphism group of an overtwisted contact structure on S3S^3 does not always act transitively on the set of boundaries of overtwisted discs.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1612.06557,
  title  = {Non-loose unknots, overtwisted discs, and the contact mapping class group of $S^3$},
  author = {Thomas Vogel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.06557},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Classification of loose unknots in S3 added. Exposition reworked