Chord diagrams, contact-topological quantum field theory and contact categories (Q600811)

Honda, Kazez, and Matić proved that Sutured Floer Homology with \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-coefficients (\(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-SFH) shares some formal properties with \((1+1)\)-TQFT [\textit{K. Honda, W. H. Kazez} and \textit{G. Matić}, Contact structures, sutured Floer homology and TQFT, preprint, arXiv:0807.2431]. This paper studies \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-SFH for a solid torus with longitudinal sutures. In this case, contact elements are in bijective correspondence with what the author calls ``chord diagrams'', which are sets of disjoint properly embedded arcs in a disc. The main theorem reduces the study of this \(\mathbb{Z}_2\)-SFH to the pleasing combinatorial theory of chord diagrams. Using ``creation and annihilation operators'' reminiscent of QFT, a basis for each SFH vector space is given, consisting of contact elements. The above results have meaning in contact geometry, independent of SFH. Section 3 defines a ``bounded'' extension of K. Honda's ``contact category'', consisting of chord diagrams and contact structures which occur within a given contact solid cylinder. Using the main theorem, the structure of the bounded contact category can be investigated combinatorially, and it can be computed in certain cases. The contact-geometric notion of a ``bypass attachment'' corresponds to a combinatorial ``bypass move'' on chord diagrams. This leads to a rough notion of ``exact triangle'' in the bounded contact category, in line with the expectation that the contact category should in some sense be a triangulated category.