A remark on the contactomorphism group of overtwisted contact spheres (Q784354)

Let \((M, \xi)\) be a closed contact manifold, where \(\xi\subset TM\) is the contact hyperplane distribution. It is assumed that \(\xi\) is cooriented, that is there exists a globally defined 1-form \(\alpha\) such that \(\alpha\wedge (d\alpha)^n \ne 0\). Let \(\mathrm{Diff}_0(M, \xi)\) be the contactomorphism group of \((M, \xi)\), this group is the connected component of the identity of group \(C^\infty\)-diffeomorphisms of \(M\) preserving \(\xi\). It is assumed that contactomorphisms are coorientation-preserving. The authors show the existence of elements of infinite order in some homotopy groups of the contactomorphism group of overtwisted spheres. It follows in particular that the contactomorphism group of some high dimensional overtwisted spheres is not homotopically equivalent to a finite dimensional Lie group. The authors point out that the methods of this article could also be applied to the case of any overtwisted contact manifold \((M,\xi)\) such that both the homotopy type of the space of almost contact structures on \(M\) and the diffeomorphism group of \(M\) can be (at least partially) understood.