Invariants of Legendrian and transverse knots in monopole knot homology (Q1720130)

A balanced sutured manifold \((M,\Gamma)\) is a compact oriented \(3\)-manifold \(M\) with boundary, together with a collection \( \subset \partial M\) of disjoint oriented circles, called the sutures, and a collection of annuli \(A(\Gamma)\) comprising a tubular neighborhood of \(\Gamma\) in \(\partial M\). A basic goal in contact geometry is to construct invariants that can distinguish Legendrian or transverse knots in a contact 3-manifold which are smoothly isotopic and have the same classical invariants but are not Legendrian or transversely isotopic. Such an invariant is said to be effective. In [J. Differ. Geom. 84, No. 2, 301--364 (2010; Zbl 1208.57008)], \textit{P. Kronheimer} and \textit{T. Mrowka} defined balanced sutured monopole Floer homology \(SHM(M,\Gamma)\) of a balanced sutured manifold \((M,\Gamma)\) as an isomorphism class of \(\mathcal{R}\)-modules, where \(\mathcal{R}\) is the Novikov ring with integer coefficients. It is defined in terms of the monopole Floer homology of a closure of \((M,\Gamma)\), which is a pair \((Y,R)\), where \(Y\) is a certain closed 3-manifold containing \(M\) and \(R\) is a distinguished surface in \(Y\). In [Forum Math. Sigma 4, Article ID e12, 82 p. (2016; Zbl 1355.53068)], the present authors introduced the notion of a contact closure of the sutured contact manifold \((M,\Gamma,\xi)\). If \(\xi\) is a contact structure on \(M\) such that \(\partial M\) is convex with dividing set \(\Gamma\), then a triple \((Y,R,\overline\xi)\), where \((Y,R)\) is a closure of \((M,\Gamma)\) and \(\overline\xi\) is a certain contact structure on \(Y\) extending \(\xi\), is called a contact closure of the sutured contact manifold \((M,\Gamma,\xi)\). For \((Y,\xi)\) there are contact invariants \(\psi(Y,\xi)\) in the monopole homology. In [Invent. Math. 176, No. 3, 637--676 (2009; Zbl 1171.57031)], \textit{K. Honda} et al. defined a contact invariant for sutured contact manifolds \(EH(M,\Gamma,\xi)\) that lives in the sutured Heegaard Floer homology \(SFH(-M,-\Gamma)\). The present authors in the above paper constructed an analogous invariant denoted by \(\psi(M,\Gamma, \xi)\) in the sutured monopole homology \(SHM(-M,-\Gamma)\). The monopole knot homology of a knot \(K\) in a closed 3-manifold \(Y\) is the isomorphism class of \(\mathcal{R}\)-modules \(KHM(Y,K)=SHM(Y\backslash\nu(K),m\cup-m)\), where \(\nu(K)\) is a tubular neighborhood of the knot and \(m\) is an oriented meridian on the boundary of this knot complement. \par In this paper, the authors define a new invariant of Legendrian knots in monopole knot homology theory. The Legendrian invariant defined in this paper assigns to a based, oriented Legendrian knot \((K,p)\) in \((Y,\xi)\) an element \(\mathcal{L}(K)\) in \(KHM(-Y,K,p)\). To define this element, they first remove a standard neighborhood of \(K\) and then glue on a piece called a bypass in such a way that the result is the complement of a tubular neighborhood of \(K\) with dividing set a pair of oppositely oriented meridians. The Legendrian invariant of \(K\) is then defined as \(\mathcal{L}(K)=\psi(Y\backslash\nu(K),m\cup-m,\xi_K)\), where \((Y\backslash\nu(K),m\cup-m,\xi_K)\) is the sutured contact manifold constructed in the above way. If \(K_-\) and \(K_+\) are Legendrian knots in \((Y,\xi)\) parametrized by maps \(\gamma_{\pm}:S^1\to Y\), then \(K_-\) is said to be Lagrangian concordant to \(K_+\) if there is a Lagrangian cylinder \(L:S^1\times\mathbb{R}\hookrightarrow Y\times\mathbb{R}\) in the symplectization of \(Y\) and a constant \(T>0\) such that \(L(s,t)=\gamma_-(s)\) for all \(t\le -T\) and \(L(s,t)=\gamma_+(s)\) for all \(t\ge T\). The authors show that if \((K_-,p_-)\) and \((K_+,p_+)\) are Legendrian knots in \((Y,\xi)\) such that \(K_-\) is Lagrangian concordant to \(K_+\) in the symplectization of \((Y,\xi)\), then there exists a map \(KHM(-YK_+,p_+)\to KHM(-YK_-,p_-)\) which sends \(\mathcal{L}(K_+)\) to \(\mathcal{L}(K_-)\). Also, it is shown that if \((K,p)\subset(Y,\xi)\) and \((K',p')\subset(Y',\xi')\) are based, oriented Legendrian knots and \(f:(Y,\xi)\to(Y',\xi')\) is a contactomorphism sending \((K,p)\) to \((K',p')\), then \(KHM(f)({\mathcal{L}}(K))={\mathcal{L}}(K')\). The authors present more properties of the invariant \(\mathcal{L}\). One of them states that if \((K,p)\) is a based, oriented Legendrian knot in \((Y,\xi)\), \((K_-,p_-)\) and \((K_+,p_+)\) are stabilizations of \(K\) contained within a standard neighborhood \(N\) of \(K\), then \(\mathcal{L}(K_+)=0\). Finally, the authors provide the infinite family of nonreversible Lagrangian concordances between prime knots.