Generic singularities of the 3D-contact sub-Riemannian conjugate locus (Q2317488)

The main result is the following. Theorem. Let \(M\) be a three-dimensional smooth connected manifold, let \(\mathrm{SubR}(M)\) be the space of contact sub-Riemannian distributions over \(M\) endowed with Withney topology. Then there exists an open and dense subset \(\mathscr{E}\subset\mathrm{SubR}(M)\) such that for any \((\Delta,g)\in\mathscr{E}\), the following conditions hold: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] There exists a smooth curve \(\mathscr{C}\subset M\) such that outside \(\mathscr{C}\) the intersections of the caustic with horizontal planes are closed curves exhibiting 4 cusp points. \item[(ii)] There exists an open and dense subset \(\mathscr{O}\subset\mathscr{C}\) on which the intersections of the caustic with horizontal planes are described by pairs of symbols \((\mathscr{S}_i,\mathscr{S}_j)\), \(i,j,\in\{1,2,3\}\) and \(\mathscr{S}_1=(0,1,1,1,1,1)\), \(\mathscr{S}_2=(2,1,1,1,1,1)\), \(\mathscr{S}_3=(2,1,1,2,1,0)\). \item[(iii)] There exists a discrete subset \(\mathscr{D}\subset\mathscr{C}\) complement of \(\mathscr{O}\) in \(\mathscr{E}\) on which the intersections of the caustic with horizontal planes are described by pairs of symbols \((\mathscr{S}_i, \mathscr{S}_j)\), \(i\in\{1,2,3\}\), \(j\in\{4,5,6,7\}\) and \(\mathscr{S}_4=(\frac12,\frac12,1,0,0,1)\), \(\mathscr{S}_5=(1,\frac12,\frac12,1,1,1)\), \(\mathscr{S}_6=(\frac32,\frac12,1,1,0,1)\), \(\mathscr{S}_7=(2,\frac12,\frac12,2,0,0)\). \end{itemize}