Related papers: Geometric structures on contactomorphism groups an…

We prove that some paths of contactomorphisms of $\mathbb{R}^{2n} \times S^1$ endowed with its standard contact structure are geodesics for different norms defined on the identity component of the group of compactly supported…

As shown by H. Gluck in 1962, the diffeotopy group of S^1 \times S^2 is isomorphic to Z_2 + Z_2 + Z_2. Here an alternative proof of this result is given, relying on contact topology. We then discuss two applications to contact topology: (i)…

This paper is concerned with basic geometric properties of the phase space of a classical general relativistic particle, regarded as the 1st jet space of motions, i.e. as the 1st jet space of timelike 1--dimensional submanifolds of…

Two constructions of contact manifolds are presented: (i) products of S^1 with manifolds admitting a suitable decomposition into two exact symplectic pieces and (ii) fibre connected sums along isotropic circles. Baykur has found a…

We propose a novel approach to contact Hamiltonian mechanics which, in contrast to the one dominating in the literature, serves also for non-trivial contact structures. In this approach Hamiltonians are no longer functions on the contact…

For certain contact manifolds admitting a 1-periodic Reeb flow we construct a conjugation-invariant norm on the universal cover of the contactomorphism group. With respect to this norm the group admits a quasi-isometric monomorphism of the…

We produce a large class of hyperbolic homology 3-spheres admitting arbitrarily many distinct tight contact structures. We also produce a sub-class admitting arbitrarily many distinct tight contact structures within the same homotopy class…

A rigorous foundation for the contact homology of Legendrian submanifolds in a contact manifold of the form $P\times \R$ where $P$ is an exact symplectic manifold is established. The class of such contact manifolds include 1-jet spaces of…

Often it is possible to equip the space of all cone geodesics of a strongly convex cone structure with the structure of a smooth contact manifold. This generalizes the analogous notions for the space of light rays of a Lorentzian spacetime.…

We investigate the local geometry of a pair of independent contact structures on 3-manifolds under maps that independently preserve each contact structure. We discover that such maps are homotheties on the contact 1-forms and we discover…

Motivated by the desire of finding a geometric interpretation to the Yamabe equation on groups of Heisenberg type, we define a geometric structure on manifolds modelled locally on these groups, which we call contact structure of Heisenberg…

Contact path geometries are curved geometric structures on a contact manifold comprising smooth families of paths modeled on the family of all isotropic lines in the projectivization of a symplectic vector space. Locally such a structure is…

In this paper we study the groups of contactomorphisms of a closed contact manifold from a topological viewpoint. First we construct examples of contact forms on spheres whose Reeb flow has a dense orbit. Then we show that the unitary group…

We define an almost--cosymplectic--contact structure which generalizes cosymplectic and contact structures of an odd dimensional manifold. Analogously, we define an almost--coPoisson--Jacobi structure which generalizes a Jacobi structure.…

Let $L\subset J^1(M)$ be a Legendrian submanifold of the 1-jet space of a Riemannian $n$-manifold $M$. A correspondence is established between rigid flow trees in $M$ determined by $L$ and boundary punctured rigid pseudo-holomorphic disks…

We study generalized almost contact structures on odd-dimensional manifolds. We introduce a notion of integrability and show that the class of these structures is closed under symmetries of the Courant-Dorfman bracket, including T-duality.…

This sequel to our previous paper [MS11b] continues the study of topological contact dynamics and applications to contact dynamics and topological dynamics. We provide further evidence that the topological automorphism groups of a contact…

The theory of $G$-structures provides us with a unified framework for a large class of geometric structures, including symplectic, complex and Riemannian structures, as well as foliations and many others. Surprisingly, contact geometry -…

We prove that quasi-isometries of horospherical products of hyperbolic spaces are geometrically rigid in the sense that they are uniformly close to product maps, this is a generalisation of the result obtained by Eskin, Fisher and Whyte in…

The main purpose of this article is to classify contact structures on some 3-manifolds, namely lens spaces, most torus bundles over a circle, the solid torus, and the thickened torus T^2 x [0,1]. This classification completes earlier work…