Fractional Dehn twists in knot theory and contact topology (Q373650)

Let \(S\) be a compact oriented surface with a hyperbolic metric so that its nonempty boundary \(\partial\,S\) is connected and geodesic. If \(h:S\to S\) is a non-reducible diffeomorphism such that \(h_{\partial\,S}=\text{Id}\), then \(h\) is freely homotopic to a periodic or pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism \(\psi\) called a Thurston representative of \(h\). If \(H:S\times[0,1]\to S\) is the free isotopy from \(h(x)=H(x,0)\) to its periodic or pseudo-Anosov representative \(\psi(x)= H(x,1)\), then there is the function \(\beta:\partial\,S\times[0,1]\to \partial\,S\times[0,1]\) defined as \(\beta(x,t)=(H(x,t),t)\). For an oriented identification \(\partial\,S\simeq\mathbb R/\mathbb Z\), there is an orientation-preserving homeomorphism \(f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R\) generated by lifting \(\beta:\mathbb R/\mathbb Z\times[0,1]\to\mathbb R/\mathbb Z\times[0,1]\) to \(\overline \beta: \mathbb R\times[0,1]\to\mathbb R\times[0,1]\) by setting \(f(x)=\overline\beta(x,1)-\overline\beta(x,0)+x\). Then \(\beta\) is called a fractional Dehn twist by an amount \(c\in\mathbb Q\), where \(c\) is the rotation number of \(f\). For a closed, oriented contact \(3\)-manifold \((M,\xi)\) and the pair \((S,h)\), let \(K\) be a link in \(M\). An open book decomposition, denoted by \((S,h)\), for \(M\) with binding \(K\) is a homeomorphism between \(((S\times[0,1])/\sim_h,(\partial\,S\times[0,1])/\sim_h)\) and \((M,K)\), where the equivalence relation \(\sim_h\) is defined by \((x,1)\sim_h(h(x),0)\) and \((y,t)\sim_h(y,t')\) for all \(x\in S\), \(y\in\partial\,S\), and \(t,t'\in[0,1]\). If \(g\in \text{Homeo}(S',\partial\,S')\), \(\alpha\) is a properly embedded arc in \(S'\), and \(S\) is the union of \(S'\) and a band attached to \(\partial\,S'\) along neighborhoods of the endpoints of \(\alpha\) in \(S'\) to make the resulting surface orientable, then \(S\) is the union of \(S'\) and an annulus that intersect in a regular neighborhood of \(\alpha\). If \(\hat g\) and \(\hat T\) are the extensions of \(g\) and \(T\) by the identity map to the portion of \(S\) where they are not already defined and \(T\) is a positive Dehn twist on the annulus, then the homeomorphism \(h=\hat T\circ\hat g:S\to S\) is called the positive stabilization of \(g\) along \(\alpha\). In this paper, the authors describe techniques for estimating and computing the fractional Dehn twist coefficients \(c(h)\) of \(h\). The main result shows that if \(h\) is a positive stabilization and \(S\) has connected boundary, then \(0\leq c(h)\leq \frac12\). They discuss the relationship of their result to stabilization problems in classical knot theory, general open book decompositions, and contact topology. Also, they include an elementary characterization of overtwistedness for contact structures described by open book decompositions.