Gluing tight contact structures (Q1860987)

The contact topology in dimension 3 is governed by the dichotomy between tight and overtwisted contact structures [cf. \textit{Y. Eliashberg}, Ann. Inst. Fourier 42, 165-192 (1992; Zbl 0756.53017)]. The overtwisted structures are well understood, the present article is devoted to the thoroughly updated study of gluing theorems for tight structures. The author recalls some fundamental concepts (Legendrian curves, convex surfaces, dividing sets, bypass, Legendrian boundaries) and key principles (Giroux criterion for tight neighbourhood, Legendrian realization of isotopies, bypass attachments) in order to obtain powerful gluing theorems for tight contact structures on 3-manifolds (especially a classification for the set \(T(M,\Gamma_{\partial M})\) of isotopy classes on \(M\) with certain boundary conditions on \(\partial M)\). Many explicit examples are discussed, in particular a tight contact structure on a handlebody \(M\) of genus \(g=4\) which becomes overtwisted after a Legendrian surgery.