Open book foliation (Q2509857)

In [Astérisque 107/108, 87--161 (1983; Zbl 0573.58022)], \textit{D. Bennequin} showed that there is a contact structure, \(\xi_{\text{ot}}\), on \(S^3\) that is homotopic to the standard contact structure, \(\xi_{\text{std}}\), as a \(2\)-plane field but not contactomorphic to \(\xi_{\text{std}}\), and to distinguish them he studied closed braids and characteristic foliations on their Seifert surfaces induced by the contact structures. Two directions of studies emerged from Bennequin's theory, the theory of characteristic foliations and convex surfaces, and the theory of braid foliations. In [Ann. Inst. Fourier 42, No.1--2, 165--192 (1992; Zbl 0756.53017)], \textit{Y.~Eliashberg} used characteristic foliations to show the Bennequin-Eliashberg inequality for tight contact 3-manifolds and generalized the Bennequin inequality for the tight contact 3-sphere. Also, characteristic foliations played important roles in Eliashberg's classification of overtwisted contact structures. In [Comment. Math. Helv. 66, No.4, 637--677 (1991; Zbl 0766.53028)], \textit{E. Giroux} extended characteristic foliation theory and initiated convex surface theory. \textit{J. S. Birman} and \textit{W. W. Menasco} developed the theory of braid foliations. In [Geom. Topol. 10, 413--540 (2006; Zbl 1128.57003)], they proved the Markov theorem without stabilization, which states that any two closed braid representatives of any link in \(\mathbb R^3\) can be transformed to each other in a very controlled manner. Also, they applied the braid foliation to contact geometry and constructed examples of transversely non-simple knots in the standard contact 3-sphere. In this paper, the authors initiate the theory of open book foliations, which generalize braid foliations. An open book \((S,\varphi)\) is a compact surface \(S\) with non-empty boundary \(\partial S\) along with a diffeomorphism \(\varphi\in\text{Aut}(S,\partial S)\) fixing the boundary pointwise. Let \(M_{(S,\varphi)}=M_\varphi\cup\left(\coprod\limits_{|\partial S|}D^2\times S^1\right)\) be a closed oriented 3-manifold, where \(M_\varphi\) denotes the mapping torus \(S\times[0,1]/(x,1)\sim(\varphi(x),0)\) and the solid tori are attached so that for each point \(p\in\partial S\) the circle \(\{p\}\times S^1\subset\partial M_\varphi\) bounds a meridian disc of \(D^2\times S^1\). If a closed oriented manifold \(M\) is homeomorphic to \(M_{(S,\varphi)}\), then \((S,\varphi)\) is said to be an open book decomposition of the manifold \(M\). Let \(F\) be an oriented, connected, compact surface smoothly embedded in \(M_{(S,\varphi)}\) whose boundary \(F\) is in braid position with respect to the open book \((S,\varphi)\), and let \({\mathcal F}={\mathcal F}(F)\) be the singular foliation on \(F\) induced by the pages \(\{S_t;\;t\in S^1\}\). The singular foliation \({\mathcal F}_{\text{ob}}(F)\) is an open book foliation if the following conditions are satisfied: (i)\,the binding \(B\) pierces the surface \(F\) transversely in finitely many points, and \(p\in B\cap F\) if and only if there exists a disc neighborhood \(N_p\subset\text{Int}(F)\) of \(p\) on which the foliation \({\mathcal F}(N_p)\) is radial with the node \(p\), (ii)\,the leaves of \({\mathcal F}\) along \(\partial\,F\) are transverse to \(\partial\,F\), (iii) all but finitely many fibers \(S_t\) intersect \(F\) transversely, (iv)\,all the tangencies of \(F\) and fibers are of saddle type. An open book foliation theory is independent of the theory of characteristic foliations and gives rise to a new technique to analyze general contact 3-manifolds, just like Bennequin's foliations and Birman and Menasco's braid foliations have been used to study the standard tight contact 3-sphere. The authors study open book foliations on surfaces in \(3\)-manifolds and develop the basics of open book foliations in a topological and combinatorial way. They give two applications to contact geometry of dimension \(3\). The first application is the proof a braid-theoretic formula for the self-linking number for an \(n\)-stranded braid, \(b\), with respect to an open book \((S,\varphi)\), which reveals an unexpected connection to the Johnson-Morita homomorphism in mapping class group theory. The second application is the alternative combinatorial proof of the Bennequin-Eliashberg inequality stating that if a contact \(3\)-manifold \((M,\xi)\) is tight, then for any null-homologous transverse link \(L\) and its Seifert surface \(\Sigma\), \(\text{sl}(L,[\Sigma])\leq-\chi(\Sigma)\).