Contact homology and one parameter families of Legendrian knots (Q813162)

Independently, Chekanov [\textit{Y. Chekanov}, Invent. Math. 150, 441--483 (2002; Zbl 1029.57011)] and Eliashberg, see [\textit{Y. Eliashberg, A. Givental, H. Hofer}, ''Introduction to symplectic field theory'', GAFA 2000. Visions in mathematics -- Towards 2000. Proceedings of a meeting, Tel Aviv, Israel, August 25--September 3, 1999. Part II. Basel: Birkhäuser, 560--673 (2000; Zbl 0989.81114)], introduced contact homology of Legendrian knots in standard contact \({\mathbb R}^3\) and used it to show that there exist Legendrian knots which lie in the same path component of the space of smooth knots and which have the same homotopical framing data (Thurston-Bennequin invariant and rotation number) but which do not lie in the same path component in the space of Legendrian knots. In the paper under review the author shows, via a bifurcation analysis, that a Legendrian isotopy connecting one Legendrian knot to another one induces a homomorphism between the contact homologies of the knots and that this homomorphism depends only on the homotopy class, relative endpoints, of the isotopy. In particular, associated to a based loop of Legendrian knots is a monodromy-automorphism of the contact homology of its base point, which depends only on the homotopy class of the loop. The author computes the contact homology of ''the Legendrian closure of a positive braid''. Using this computation and monodromy-automorphisms he exhibits loops of right-handed Legendrian torus knots which are non-contractible in the space of Legendrian knots although they are contractible in the space of smooth knots.