Heegard Floer invariants of Legendrian knots in contact three-manifolds (Q1041259)

The main goal of this paper is to define invariants \({\mathfrak L}(L)\) and \(\widehat{\mathfrak L}(L)\) associated to an oriented null-homologous Legendrian knot \(L\) in a general closed connected oriented contact 3-manifold \(Y\) with a cooriented contact structure \(\xi\). The elements \({\mathfrak L}(L)\) and \(\widehat{\mathfrak L}(L)\) are determined by elements in the Heegaard Floer homology of \((-Y,L)\), where \(-Y\) denotes \(Y\) with its orientation reversed. The invariants depend only on the Legendrian isotopy class of \(L\). Let \((Y,\xi)\) be an oriented closed contact \(3\)-manifold, assume that the contact structure \(\xi\) is cooriented, and let \(L \subset Y\) be an oriented null-homologous Legendrian knot. Certain auxiliary data \(D\), together with \(\xi\), determine a cycle \({\mathbf x}(L,D)\) in a complex that defines the Heegaard Floer homology \(HFK^-(-Y,L,{\mathbf t}_\xi)\) or \(\widehat{HFK}(-Y,L,{\mathbf t}_\xi)\) viewed as \({\mathbb Z}_2[U]\)-modules, where \({\mathbf t}_\xi\) is the Spin\(^c\) structure on \(Y\) induced by \(\xi\) and \(U\) is a formal variable used to define the Heegaard Floer homology. The equivalence class \([{\mathbf x}(L,D)]\) given by modding out by \({\mathbb Z}_2\)[U]-module isomorphisms does not depend on the auxiliary data \(D\). The main result of the paper is \textbf{Theorem 1.1.} Let \(L\) be an oriented, null-homologous Legendrian knot in the closed contact \(3\)-manifold \((Y,\xi)\), and let \({\mathbf t}_\xi\) be the Spin\(^c\) structure on \(Y\) induced by \(\xi\). Then, after choosing some auxiliary data, it is possible to associate to \(L\) homology classes \(\alpha_{\mathfrak L}(L) \in HFK^-(-Y,L,{\mathbf t}_\xi)\) and \(\alpha_{\widehat{\mathfrak L}(L)} \in \widehat{HFK}(-Y,L,{\mathbf t}_\xi)\) such that \[ {\mathfrak L}(L) := [HFK^-(-Y,L,{\mathbf t}_\xi), \alpha_{\mathfrak L}(L)] \quad and \quad \widehat{{\mathfrak L}}(L) := [\widehat{HFK}(-Y,L,{\mathbf t}_\xi), \alpha_{\widehat{\mathfrak L}}(L)] \] do not depend on the choice of auxiliary data, and in fact only depend on the Legendrian isotopy class of \(L\). Section 2 of the paper reviews facts about open books and contact structures, Heegaard Floer homology groups, and the contact Ozsváth-Szabó invariants. Section 3 discusses Legendrian knots and open books and proves the main Theorem 1.1. Section 4 computes the invariants for the Legendrian unknot with Thurston-Bennequin invariant \(-1\) in the standard tight contact \(3\)-sphere. More specifically, the authors prove \textbf{Corollary 4.2.} Suppose that \(L \subset (S^2,\xi)\) is an oriented Legendrian unknot with tb\((L) = -1\). Then \({\mathfrak L}(L)\) is represented by the generator of the \({\mathbb Z}_2[U]\)-module \(HFK^-(L) = {\mathbb Z}_2[U]\). If \(L^-\) is the negative stabilization of \(L\) then \({\mathfrak L}(L^-) = {\mathfrak L}(L)\), while for the positive stabilization we have \({\mathfrak L}(L^+) = U \cdot {\mathfrak L}(L)\). Section 5 proves some of the basic properties of the invariants. These properties are given by the following 5 results. \textbf{Theorem 1.2.} If the contact Ozsváth-Szabó invariant \(c(Y,\xi) \in \widehat{HF}(-Y,{\mathbf t}_\xi)\) of the contact \(3\)-manifold \((Y,\xi)\) does not vanish, then \({\mathfrak L}(L) \neq 0\) for any oriented Legendrian knot \(L \subset (Y,\xi)\). If \(c(Y,\xi) = 0\) then for \(d\) large enough \(U^d \cdot {\mathfrak L}(L)\) vanishes. \textbf{Corollary 1.3.} If \((Y,\xi)\) is strongly symplectically fillable then for any null-homologous Legendrian knot \(L \subset (Y,\xi)\) the invariant \({\mathfrak L}(L)\) is non-vanishing. If \((Y,\xi)\) is overtwisted, then for any Legendrian knot \(L\) there is \(d \geq 0\) such that \(U^d \cdot {\mathfrak L}(L)\) vanishes. \textbf{Theorem 1.4.} If \(L \subset (Y,\xi)\) is an oriented, null-homologous and loose Legendrian knot, then \({\mathfrak L}(L) = 0\). \textbf{Theorem 1.5.} Suppose that \(T\) is a null-homologous transverse knot in the contact \(3\)-manifold \((Y,\xi)\). Let \(L\) be a (compatibly oriented) Legendrian approximation of \(T\). Then \({\mathfrak T}(T) := {\mathfrak L}(L)\) and \(\widehat{{\mathfrak T}}(T) := \widehat{{\mathfrak L}}(L)\) are invariants of the transverse knot type of \(T\). \textbf{Theorem 1.6.} Suppose that \(L\) is an oriented Legendrian knot and let \(L^+\), resp. \(L^-\) denote the oriented positive, resp. negative stabilizations of \(L\). Then \({\mathfrak L}(L^-) = {\mathfrak L}(L)\) and \({\mathfrak L}(L^+) = U \cdot {\mathfrak L}(L)\). Section 6 is a lengthy section with lots of detailed diagrams where the authors determine the invariant \(\widehat{{\mathfrak L}}\) for various non-loose Legendrian torus knots in certain overtwisted contact structures on \(S^3\). Section 7 discusses connected sums and contains the proof of Theorem 1.6, and Section 8 gives examples of distinct pairs of non-loose knots with equal classical invariants. Specifically, the authors prove the following. \textbf{Theorem 1.7.} The knot type \(T_{(2,-7)} \# T_{(2,-9)} \in S^3\) has two non-loose, transversely non-isotopic transverse representatives with the same self-linking number with respect to the overtwisted contact structure \(\xi_{12}\) with Hopf invariant \(d_3(\xi_{12}) = 12\). \textbf{Corollary 1.8.} Let \((Y,\xi)\) be a contact \(3\)-manifold with \(c(Y,\xi) \neq 0\). Let \(\zeta\) be an overtwisted contact structure on \(Y\) with \({\mathbf t}_\xi = {\mathbf t}_\zeta\). Then in \((Y,\zeta)\) there are null-homologous knot types which admit two non-loose, transversely non-isotopic transverse representations with the same self-linking number.