Controlled Reeb dynamics -- three lectures not in Cala Gonone (Q2311391)

In these notes, based on a mini-course at a conference, the author surveys some of his results in contact topology with an emphasis on the connection between dynamics of the Reeb vector field and topology in higher dimensions. The aim is to build contact manifolds whose Reeb dynamics has certain desirable features, for instance, a given number of periodic Reeb orbits. Topics discussed include traps for Reeb flows, plugs for Hamiltonian flows, and the Weinstein conjecture. The emphasis is on methods of construction of contact manifolds, e.g., contact cuts, and techniques such as lifting group actions in Boothby-Wang bundles, that might be useful for other applications in contact topology.