Stein fillings of contact 3-manifolds obtained as Legendrian surgeries (Q308000)

For a closed oriented \(3\)-manifold \(M\), a pair \((B,\pi)\) is said to be embedded open book decomposition of \(M\) if \(B\) is an oriented link in \(M\) (called the binding of the open book decomposition), and \(\pi:M\setminus B\to S^1\) is a fibration such that \(\pi^{-1}(\theta)\) is the interior of a compact surface \(S_\theta\) with \(\partial S_\theta=B\) for all \(\theta\in S^1\). Since the original fibration \(\pi\) can be obtained by gluing the surfaces \(S\times\{0\}\) and \(S\times \{2\pi\}\), hence there is an alternate description of an open book decomposition for \(M\). If \(M\) is a closed oriented \(3\)-manifold, then \((S,\varphi)\) is called an abstract open book decomposition of \(M\) if \(S\) is an oriented compact surface with boundary (called the page of the open book decomposition), and \(\varphi: S\to S\) is a diffeomorphism of \(S\) such that \(\varphi_{|\partial S}\) is the identity. \((S,\varphi)\) determines a \(3\)-manifold \(M_\varphi\) as \(S\times[0,1]/\sim\), where \(\sim\) is the equivalence relation \((x,1)\sim(\varphi(x),0)\) for \(x\in S\), and \((y,t)\sim(y,t')\) for \(y\in\partial S\). A complex manifold \(W\) that admits a proper holomorphic embedding into \(\mathbb C^N\) for some large integer \(N\) is called a Stein manifold. \(W\) admits an exhausting plurisubharmonic function \(\rho: W\to\mathbb R\). For any regular value \(c\) of \(\rho\), the complex tangencies define a contact structure on the level set \(M_c=\{x\in W;\;\rho(x)=c\}\). The manifold \(W_c=\{x\in W;\;\rho(x)\leq c\}\) is called a Stein filling of the contact manifold \(M_c\). A contact structure \(\xi\) on \(M\) is supported by an embedded open book decomposition \((B,\pi)\) of \(M\) if \(\xi\) can be isotoped through contact structures so that there is a \(1\)-form \(\alpha\) for \(\xi\) such that \(\alpha>0\) on \(B\) and \(d\alpha\) is a positive area form on each page \(S_\theta\) of the open book decomposition. A contact \(3\)-manifold is supported by an abstract open book decomposition \((S,\varphi)\) if \(\xi\) is supported by an embedded open book decomposition determined by \((S,\varphi)\). In this paper, the authors study fillability of a contact \(3\)-manifold \((M,\xi)\). They prove that if \((M,\xi)\) is the contact \(3\)-manifold supported by the open book \((\Sigma,\Phi)\), then \((M,\xi)\) admits a unique Stein filling up to diffeomorphism. Also, the authors classify the Stein fillings of an infinite family of contact \(3\)-manifolds up to diffeomorphism. Some contact \(3\)-manifolds in this family can be obtained by Legendrian surgeries on \((S^3,\xi_{\text{std}})\) along certain Legendrian \(2\)-bridge knots. In addition to classifying Stein fillings up to diffeomorphism, the authors also classify Stein fillings of Legendrian surgeries along some Legendrian twist knots up to symplectic deformation. They show that if \(L\) is a Legendrian twist knot \(K_{-2p}\) with Thurston-Bennequin invariant \(-1\) and rotation number \(0\), then the Legendrian surgery on \((S^3,\xi_{\text{std}})\) along any stabilization of \(L\) yields a contact \(3\)-manifold with unique Stein filling up to symplectic deformation equivalence. It is also shown that there are infinitely many contact hyperbolic \(3\)-manifolds admitting a unique Stein filling up to symplectic deformation equivalence.