Open book decompositions of fiber sums in contact topology (Q2630664)

One of the most fundamental theorems in \(3\) dimensional contact topology is the one to one correspondence between open-book decompositions of a closed \(3\) manifold up to positive stabilization and the contact structures on it up to isotopy [\textit{E. Giroux}, in: Proceedings of the international congress of mathematicians, ICM 2002, Beijing, China, August 20--28, 2002. Vol. II: Invited lectures. Beijing: Higher Education Press; Singapore: World Scientific/distributor. 405--414 (2002; Zbl 1015.53049)]. The former, which is of topological nature, provides an accessible way to study contact structures. In the paper under review, the author develops two surgery operations on open-book decompositions, namely fibered sum along binding components and fibered sum along multi-sections, which can be applied to construct open-book decompositions supporting various contact structures. As an application, the author recovers open-book decompositions for all tight contact structures on \(T^3\), which were first established in [\textit{J. Van Horn-Morris}, Constructions of open book decompositions. Austin, TX: University of Texas (PhD Thesis) (2007)].