Contact structures on \(M\times S^2\) (Q2439293)

If \(\xi\) is a maximally non-integrable distribution of hyperplanes on an \((2n-1)\)-dimensional manifold \(M\), then \((M,\xi)\) is a contact manifold. \(\xi\) is always co-oriented, so that it can be written as the kernel of a \(1\)-form \(\alpha\) such that \(\alpha\wedge(d\alpha)^{n-1}\) is a volume form. The \(2\)-form \(d\alpha\) defines a symplectic form on \(\ker \alpha\), which determines an almost complex structure \(J\) on the sub-bundle \(\xi\subset TM\), unique up to contractible choice. A diffeomorphism \(\varphi\) of \(M\) is called a contactomorphism if it preserves the contact distribution \(\xi\) and its co-orientation, that is, \(\varphi^*\alpha=e^g\alpha\) for some function \(g:M\to\mathbb R\). One of the important problems in contact topology is to determine which odd dimensional oriented manifolds admit contact structures. In [Int. Math. Res. Not. 2002, No. 30, 1571--1574 (2002; Zbl 1021.53055)], \textit{F. Bourgeois} gave a construction of contact structures on certain compact manifolds. The author showed that for a closed contact manifold \((M,\xi)\) the product \(M\times \Sigma_g\) also admits a contact structure provided the genus \(g\geq 1\), where \(\Sigma_g\) is the closed orientable surface of genus \(g\). In this paper, the authors prove that the result of Bourgeois holds for \(g=0\) as well. They show that if \((M,\xi)\) is a closed, contact manifold, then the product \(M\times S^2\) admits a contact structure, and also if \(p\in S^2\), then the product \(M\times S^2\) admits a contact structure such that the submanifold \(M\times \{p\}\) is contact and the natural map to \((M,\xi)\) is a contactomorphism.