Reeb orbits that force topological entropy

We develop a forcing theory of topological entropy for Reeb flows in dimension three. A transverse link L in a closed contact $3$ -manifold $(Y,\xi )$ is said to force topological entropy if $(Y,\xi )$ admits a Reeb flow with vanishing topological entropy, and every Reeb flow on $(Y,\xi )$ realizing L as a set of periodic Reeb orbits has positive topological entropy. Our main results establish topological conditions on a transverse link L, which imply that L forces topological entropy. These conditions are formulated in terms of two Floer theoretical invariants: the cylindrical contact homology on the complement of transverse links introduced by Momin [A. Momin. J. Mod. Dyn.5 (2011), 409–472], and the strip Legendrian contact homology on the complement of transverse links, introduced by Alves [M. R. R. Alves. PhD Thesis, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 2014] and further developed here. We then use these results to show that on every closed contact $3$ -manifold that admits a Reeb flow with vanishing topological entropy, there exist transverse knots that force topological entropy.

C0-stability of topological entropy for contactomorphisms

Topological entropy is not lower semi-continuous: small perturbation of the dynamical system can lead to a collapse of entropy. In this note we show that for some special classes of dynamical systems (geodesic flows, Reeb flows, positive contactomorphisms) topological entropy at least is stable in the sense that there exists a nontrivial continuous lower bound, given that a certain homological invariant grows exponentially.

Pseudorotations of the -disc and Reeb flows on the -sphere

We use Lerman’s contact cut construction to find a sufficient condition for Hamiltonian diffeomorphisms of compact surfaces to embed into a closed $3$ -manifold as Poincaré return maps on a global surface of section for a Reeb flow. In particular, we show that the irrational pseudorotations of the $2$ -disc constructed by Fayad and Katok embed into the Reeb flow of a dynamically convex contact form on the $3$ -sphere.

On the relation between action and linking

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>We introduce numerical invariants of contact forms in dimension three and use asymptotic cycles to estimate them. As a consequence, we prove a version for Anosov Reeb flows of results due to Hutchings and Weiler on mean actions of periodic points. The main tool is the Action-Linking Lemma, expressing the contact area of a surface bounded by periodic orbits as the Liouville average of the asymptotic intersection number of most trajectories with the surface.</p>

A Boothby–Wang Theorem for Besse Contact Manifolds

A Reeb flow on a contact manifold is called Besse if all its orbits are periodic, possibly with different periods. We characterize contact manifolds whose Reeb flows are Besse as principal $$S^1$$ S 1 -orbibundles over integral symplectic orbifolds satisfying some cohomological condition. Apart from the cohomological condition, this statement appears in the work of Boyer and Galicki in the language of Sasakian geometry (Boyer and Galicki in Sasakian geometry, Oxford Mathematical Monographs, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008). We illustrate some non-commonly dealt with perspective on orbifolds in a proof of the above result. More precisely, we work with orbifolds as quotients of manifolds by smooth Lie group actions with finite stabilizer groups. By introducing all relevant orbifold notions in this equivariant way, we avoid patching constructions with orbifold charts. As an application, and building on work by Cristofaro-Gardiner–Mazzucchelli, we deduce a complete classification of closed Besse contact 3-manifolds up to strict contactomorphism.