Local rigidity, contact homeomorphisms, and conformal factors (Q2168346)

A contact homeomorphism \(\Psi\) of a contact manfifold \((Y,\alpha)\), where \(\alpha\) is a contact one-form, is a homeomorphism of \(Y\) that arises as limit of some sequence of contact diffeomorphisms with respect to the \(C^0\) topology. Suppose that \(\Lambda\subset Y\) is a Legendrian submanifold such that \(\Psi(\Lambda)\) is a smooth submanifold. The paper addresses the following question: ``Must \(\Psi(\Lambda)\) be Legendrian?'' Each diffeomorphism \(\Psi_m\) in the sequence converging to \(\Psi\) has a conformal factor \(f_m\) given by \(\Psi_m^*\alpha=f_m\,\alpha\). In [\textit{D. Rosen} and \textit{J. Zhang}, Math. Res. Lett. 27, No. 4, 1165--1193 (2020; Zbl 1464.53101)], the authors consider the more restricted class of contact automorphisms, defined to be \(C^0\)-limits of sequences of contactomorphisms with the property that the corresponding conformal factors converge uniformly and they give an affermative answer to the question above; in this paper this result is generalized to a weaker hypothesis on the conformal factors of the approximating sequence. Examples are provided showing that a contact homeomorphism can map a submanifold that is transverse to the contact structure to one that is smooth and tangent to the contact structure at a point.