English

An algorithm to Legendrian realize a curve on a ribbon surface

Geometric Topology 2026-04-10 v1 Symplectic Geometry

Abstract

We give an explicit algorithm to Legendrian realize a homologically nontrivial simple closed curve on a ribbon surface of a Legendrian graph in the standard contact structure (R3,ξst)(\mathbb{R}^3,\xi_{\rm st}). As an application, we obtain an algorithm that converts an abstract open book whose monodromy is written as a product of Dehn twists along homologically nontrivial curves into a contact surgery diagram for the supported contact manifold. Along the way, we also record a uniqueness statement which is implicit in earlier work but, to our knowledge, was never written in the form needed here: any two Legendrian realizations of the same curve on a ribbon surface are Legendrian isotopic, and likewise for Legendrian knots lying on pages of open books and representing the same isotopy class on the page.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.08010,
  title  = {An algorithm to Legendrian realize a curve on a ribbon surface},
  author = {Eric Stenhede},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.08010},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

36 pages, 48 figures. This paper forms part of the author's PhD thesis, "Contact structures, Legendrian knots and open book decompositions". Comments are welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T12:00:50.549Z