The contact homology of Legendrian knots with maximal Thurston-Bennequin invariant (Q362545)

It is known that there are Legendrian knots with nonvanishing or vanishing contact homology which do not have maximal Thurston-Bennequin invariant \(tb\). There are such examples with nonvanishing contact homology, representing the knot types \(m(10_{161})\) and \(m(10_{145})\), and those with vanishing contact homology, which are conjecturally nondestabilizable knots of type \(m(10_{139})\) and \(m(12n_{242})\), given by \textit{C. Shonkwiler} and \textit{D. S. Vela-Vick} [J. Symplectic Geom. 9, No. 1, 33--44 (2011; Zbl 1226.57013)]. In this paper, the author investigates whether there are Legendrian knots with maximal \(tb\) and vanishing contact homology. The main result is that there are two Legendrian knots \(K_1\) and \(K_2\) with maximal \(tb\), such that \(K_1\) has vanishing contact homology, even with \(\mathbb{Z}[t, t^{-1}]\) coefficients, while the contact homology of \(K_2\) does not vanish; actually, they have the same classical invariants, representing the knot type \(m(10_{132})\). The proof that \(K_1\) has vanishing contact homology is given by considering the Chekanov-Eliashberg algebra, and the proof that \(K_2\) has nonvanishing contact homology is given by showing that the characteristic algebra \(C\) of \(K_2\) is nonvanishing, using an action of \(C\) on an infinite-dimensional vector space. Further, the author gives a simpler proof that the contact homology and characteristic algebra \(C\) of \(K_2\) are nontrivial, by showing that \(C\) does not have finite-dimensional representations. As further results, the author investigates when the characteristic algebra of a Legendrian knot has \(n\)-dimensional representations, demonstrating in particular the existence of infinitely many Legendrian knots whose characteristic algebras admit \(n\)-dimensional representations for \(n=2\) but not for \(n=1\).