S-stable foliations on flow-spines with transverse Reeb flow (Q1980000)

The notion of S-stable foliation on a branched simple polyhedron \(P\) was introduced in [\textit{R. Benedetti} and \textit{C. Petronio}, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 178, 81--102 (2000; Zbl 1012.57038)] in the study of characteristic foliations of contact structures on 3-manifolds. Let \(P\) be a branched simple polyhedron. Assume that the 1-form \(\beta\) defining a foliation on \(P\) satisfies the condition \(d\beta>0\), that is, this foliation is possibly a characteristic foliation of a contact form whose Reeb flow is transverse to \(P\). The authors show that there exists a 1-form with the same property which is also S-stable. The authors use this property to prove that the number of simple tangency points of an S-stable foliation on a positive or negative flow-spine is at least 2. They give a recipe for constructing a characteristic foliation of a 1-form \(\beta\) with \(d\beta>0\) on the abalone (an example of flow-spine of \(\mathbb S^3\)).