Legendrian links and déjà vu moments (Q6178569)

This article introduces the notion of a déjà vu link of two Legendrians: An isotopy of Legendrians \(\iota\colon L\times[0,1]\rightarrow Y\) in a co-oriented contact manifold \((Y,\xi)\) is positive if and only if \(d\iota(\partial_t)\) is positively transverse to \(\xi\). A link of (disjoint) Legendrians \((L_1,L_2)\) in \(Y\) is called a déjà vu link if: \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] There exists a positive Legendrian isotopy from \(L_1\) to \(L_2\); \item[(ii)] There exists no embedded positive Legendrian isotopy from \(L_1\) to \(L_2\). \end{itemize} This definition is motivated by the notion of déjà vu moments in a Lorentzian spacetime: A point \(x_+\) in a spacetime is called a déjà vu moment, if there exists a point \(x_-\) that is connected to \(x_+\) by a future pointing timelike curve and a future pointing null geodesic. In many cases, such as globally hyperbolic spacetimes, the space of null geodesics can be naturally equipped with the structure of a smooth contact manifold (see e.g. [\textit{R. J. Low}, J. Math. Phys. 30, No. 4, 809--811 (1989; Zbl 0677.53070)]). The set of all null geodesics through a given point forms a Legendrian sphere in this space, called the sky of the point. If two points \(x_-\) and \(x_+\) are connected by a timelike curve, there exists a positive Legendrian isotopy from the sky of \(x_-\) to the sky of \(x_+\) (see [\textit{V. Chernov} and \textit{S. Nemirovski}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 19, No. 5, 1320--1333 (2010; Zbl 1186.83013)]). Obviously, in the case of déjà vu moments, the skies of \(x_-\) and \(x_+\) additionally intersect. This naturally raises the question, under which condition the sky of \(x_-\) forms a déjà vu link with skies in the chronological future of \(x_+\). In the present paper the author discovers several properties of déjà vu links, focusing on the case of Legendrian spheres and Legendrians isotopic to the \(0\)-section of a \(1\)-jet bundle. In these cases generating function methods as in [\textit{C. Viterbo}, Math. Ann. 292, No. 4, 685--710 (1992; Zbl 0735.58019)] apply and the property of being déjà vu can be captured in terms of the associated barcodes. This leads to several examples of déjà vu links in \(1\)-jet bundles and spherical cotangent bundles. Finally the relation of déjà vu links to skies of déjà vu moments in spacetimes is explored. In particular it is conjectured that if the Cauchy surface of a globally hyperbolic spacetime is not homeomorphic to a sphere, then the skies of two causally related points with disjoint skies form a déjà vu link if and only if there are déjà vu moments on every timelike curve connecting them.