Branched spines and contact structures on \(3\)--manifolds (Q1866747)

The aim of the present paper is to extend to the case of branched surfaces known results of \(3\)-dimensional contact topology [see \textit{E. Giroux}, Comment. Math. Helv. 66, No. 4, 637-677 (1991; Zbl 0766.53028)], ensuring the possibility of faithfully translating the study of contact structures \(\xi\) on a neighborhood of a surface \(\Sigma\) into the study of the (\(2\)-dimensional) pairs \((\Sigma,\mathcal F_{\xi}(\Sigma))\), \(\mathcal F_{\xi}(\Sigma)\) being the characteristic foliation induced on \(\Sigma.\) In particular, the authors' attention is fixed upon the significant case where the branched surface \(P\) is a branched standard spine -- or, more specifically, a flow-spine -- of a closed 3-manifold \(\widehat M\) [see Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1653, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1997; Zbl 0873.57002) for the foundations of the theory]. In this setting, singular foliations of branched surfaces are proved to admit local existence and uniqueness properties, as genuine surfaces do; moreover, in the case of tight structures, also global uniqueness is proved to hold. Note, that in order to get the above results, various other interesting extensions are achieved: for example, branched versions of the eliminating lemma (see \textit{E. Giroux}, [loc. cit.] or \textit{Y. Eliashberg} [Ann. Inst. Fourier 42, No. 1-2, 165-192 (1992; Zbl 0756.53017)]) and a smooth version of the Gillman-Rolfsen PL-embedding theorem [see \textit{D. Gillman} and \textit{D. Rolfsen}, Topology 22, 315-323 (1983; Zbl 0518.57007); Int. J. Math. 3, No. 2, 179-183 (1992; Zbl 0755.57003)].