The Oka principle for holomorphic Legendrian curves in \(\mathbb {C}^{2n+1}\) (Q1706109)

A holomorphic immersion \(F\) of a connected open Riemann surface \(M\) into \({\mathbb C}^{2n+1}={\mathbb C}_x^{n}\times{\mathbb C}_y^{n}\times {\mathbb C}_z\) is called Legendrian if \(F^*\alpha=0\), where \(\alpha=d\, z +\sum x_jd\,y_j\) is the standard contact form. It is proved that the space of all immersions is weakly homotopy equivalent to the space of continuous maps from \(M\) to the sphere \(\mathbb C^{4n-1}\). Furthermore, if \(M\) has finite topological type, then these spaces are homotopy equivalent. As a consequence, the space of such immersions is \((4n-3)\)-connected. The proof is based on a parametric Oka principle, also established in the paper.