Related papers: Morse structures on open books
Two of the most useful tools in topological combinatorics are the nerve lemma and discrete Morse theory. In this note we introduce a theorem that interpolates between them and allows decompositions of complexes into non-contractible pieces…
We explore the construction of Legendrian spheres in contact manifolds of any dimension. Two constructions involving open books work in any contact manifold, while one introduced by Ekholm works only in $\mathbb{R}^{2n+1}$. We show that…
We compute the Chekanov-Eliashberg contact homology of what we call the Legendrian closure of a positive braid. We also construct an augmentation for each such link diagram. Then we apply the monodromy techniques established in an earlier…
We introduce topological invariants of knots and braid conjugacy classes, in the form of differential graded algebras, and present an explicit combinatorial formulation for these invariants. The algebras conjecturally give the relative…
We apply results from both contact topology and exceptional surgery theory to study when Legendrian surgery on a knot yields a reducible manifold. As an application, we show that a reducible surgery on a non-cabled positive knot of genus g…
We derive new existence results for tight contact structures on certain 3-manifolds which can be presented as surgery along specific knots in S^3. Indeed, we extend our earlier results on knots with maximal Thurston-Bennequin number being…
Grid diagrams encode useful geometric information about knots in S^3. In particular, they can be used to combinatorially define the knot Floer homology of a knot K in S^3, and they have a straightforward connection to Legendrian…
We develop a purely combinatorial framework for the systematic enumeration of knot and link diagrams supported on the thickened torus $T^2\times I$. Using the theory of maps on surfaces, cellular $4$--regular torus projections are encoded…
We study the behavior of Legendrian and transverse knots under the operation of connected sums. As a consequence we show that there exist Legendrian knots that are not distinguished by any known invariant. Moreover, we classify Legendrian…
By a result due to Ziltener, there exist no closed embedded Bohr-Sommerfeld Lagrangians inside $\mathbb CP^n$ for the prequantisation bundle whose total space is the standard contact sphere. On the other hand, any embedded monotone…
We develop the details of a surgery theory for contact manifolds of arbitrary dimension via convex structures, extending the 3-dimensional theory developed by Giroux. The theory is analogous to that of Weinstein manifolds in symplectic…
We prove that two Legendrian knots in a contact structure which is trivializable as a plane bundle are Legendrian isotopic provided that (1) they are isotopic as framed knots, (2) they have the same rotation number with respect to some…
Echeverria recently introduced an invariant for a smoothly embedded torus in a homology $S^1\times S^3$, using gauge theory for singular connections. We define a new topological invariant of such an embedded torus, analogous to the…
Rationally null-homologous links in Seifert fibered spaces may be represented combinatorially via labeled diagrams. We introduce an additional condition on a labeled link diagram and prove that it is equivalent to the existence of a…
We prove that each overtwisted contact structure has knot types that are represented by infinitely many distinct transverse knots all with the same self-linking number. In some cases, we can even classify all such knots. We also show…
In this article, we explore a polynomial invariant for Legendrian knots which is a natural extension of Jones polynomial for (topological) knots. To this end, a new type of skein relation is introduced for the front projections of…
We construct an enhanced version of knot contact homology, and show that we can deduce from it the group ring of the knot group together with the peripheral subgroup. In particular, it completely determines a knot up to smooth isotopy. The…
We extend knot contact homology to a theory over the ring $\mathbb{Z}[\lambda^{\pm 1},\mu^{\pm 1}]$, with the invariant given topologically and combinatorially. The improved invariant, which is defined for framed knots in $S^3$ and can be…
We show that for a big class of contact manifolds the groups of order $\leq n$ invariants (with values in an arbitrary Abelian group) of Legendrian, of transverse and of framed knots are canonically isomorphic. On the other hand for an…
For any Legendrian knot or link in $\mathbb{R}^3$, we construct an $L_\infty$ algebra that can be viewed as an extension of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra. The $L_\infty$ structure incorporates information from rational…