Reeb vector fields and open book decompositions (Q1940819)

In this paper, the authors use the open book framework to calculate parts of the contact homology \(HC(M,\xi)\) of a contact manifold \((M,\xi)\) adapted to an open book decomposition, in dimension three. They prove that, for large classes of tight contact \(3\)-manifolds, \(HC(M,\xi)\) is cylindrical, and moreover that \(HC(M,\xi)\neq 0\). Let \(S\) be a compact oriented surface with a hyperbolic metric so that its nonempty boundary \(\partial\,S\) is connected and geodesic. If \(h:S\to S\) is a non-reducible diffeomorphism such that \(h_{\partial\,S}=\text{Id}\), then \(h\) is freely homotopic to a periodic or pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism \(\psi\). If \(H:S\times[0,1]\to S\) is the free isotopy from \(h(x)=H(x,0)\) to its periodic or pseudo-Anosov representative \(\psi(x)= H(x,1)\), then there is the function \(\beta:\partial\,S\times[0,1]\to \partial\,S\times[0,1]\) defined as \(\beta(x,t)=(H(x,t),t)\). For an oriented identification \(\partial\,S\simeq\mathbb R/\mathbb Z\), there is an orientation-preserving homeomorphism \(f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) generated by lifting \(\beta:\mathbb R/\mathbb Z\times[0,1]\to\mathbb R/\mathbb Z\times[0,1]\) to \(\overline \beta: \mathbb R\times[0,1]\to\mathbb R\times[0,1]\) by setting \(f(x)=\overline\beta(x,1)-\overline\beta(x,0)+x\). Then \(\beta\) is called a fractional Dehn twist by an amount \(c\in\mathbb Q\), where \(c\) is the rotation number of \(f\). For a closed, oriented contact \(3\)-manifold \((M,\xi)\) and the pair \((S,h)\), let \(K\) be a link in \(M\). An open book decomposition, denoted by \((S,h)\), for \(M\) with binding \(K\) is a homeomorphism between \(((S\times[0,1])/\sim_h,(\partial\,S\times[0,1])/\sim_h)\) and \((M,K)\), where the equivalence relation \(\sim_h\) is defined by \((x,1)\sim_h(h(x),0)\) and \((y,t)\sim_h(y,t')\) for all \(x\in S\), \(y\in\partial\,S\), and \(t,t'\in[0,1]\). The manifold \(M\) can be identified with \((S\times[0,1])/\sim_h\), and with this identification, \(S_t=S\times\{t\}\), \(t\in[0,1]\) is called a page of the open book decomposition \((S,h)\) and \(h\) is called the monodromy map. Two open book decompositions are equivalent if there is an ambient isotopy taking binding to binding and pages to pages. Every closed 3-manifold has an open book decomposition, that is not unique. One of the problems in \(3\)-dimensional contact geometry is the Weinstein conjecture stating that if \((M,\xi)\) is a contact \(3\)-manifold, then for any contact form \(\alpha\) with \(\ker\alpha=\xi\), the corresponding Reeb vector field \(R=R_\alpha\) admits a periodic orbit. The authors prove the existence and non-triviality of cylindrical contact homology for a contact manifold \((M,\xi)\) given by an open book decomposition \((S, h)\) with periodic or pseudo-Anosov monodromy, under favorable conditions. They prove that the Weinstein conjecture holds when \((S,h)\) has periodic monodromy for the periodic case, and for the pseudo-Anosov case, they show that if \(S\) is connected and \(c=k/n\) is the fractional Dehn twist coefficient, then there is a well-defined linearized contact homology group \(HC^\varepsilon(M,\alpha,J)\) for \(k\geq 2\), and \(HC^\varepsilon(M,\alpha,J)\) has exponential growth for \(k\geq 3\).