A Boothby-Wang theorem for Besse contact manifolds (Q823817)

The authors consider closed connected contact manifolds with a preferred choice of a contact form, whose Reeb orbits are all periodic. By the work of \textit{D. Sullivan} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 13, 101--104 (1978; Zbl 0402.57015)] and \textit{A. W. Wadsley} [J. Differ. Geom. 10, 541--549 (1975; Zbl 0336.57019)] this is to say that the Reeb flow is periodic. Analogously to the theory of closed geodesics those contact manifolds are called Besse contact manifolds. In the same way, if the minimal periods of the periodic Reeb orbits are all the same, equal to the circumference of the unit circle, say, the Besse contact manifold is called Zoll. Zoll contact manifolds are precisely the total spaces of Boothby-Wang bundles, i.e. principal circle bundles over closed connected symplectic manifolds, cf. [\textit{H. Geiges}, An introduction to contact topology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2008; Zbl 1153.53002)], such that: (1) The symplectic form normalized by the circumference of the unit circle is integral and the negative of its cohomology class is the real Euler class of the circle bundle. (2) The symplectic form appears as the curvature form of a connection one-form that turns out to be the contact form of the Zoll contact manifold. (3) The Reeb flow generates the circle action. Observe that the real Euler class may have several integral lifts, the integral Euler classes, that topologically classify principal circle bundles. The authors prove a similar characterization for a Reeb flow with period equal to the circumference of the unit circle, the so-called Besse case. This time the orbit space has the structure of an orbifold and the Besse contact manifold is the total space of a principal circle orbibundle. This is because the circle action induced by the Reeb flow allows finite isotropy. The curvature form is induced by the exterior differential of the contact form, which is odd-symplectic, invariant under the Reeb flow and vanishes in Reeb direction. This form induces an integral symplectic orbifold structure on the orbit space. The real Euler class of the orbibundle is an element in the second orbifold cohomology, the equivariant cohomology of the total space. The fact that the total space is a manifold results in a sequence of isomorphisms in the orbifold cohomology ring induced by the degree two action of the integral Euler class in all degrees equal to the dimension of the Besse contact manifold or higher. In dimension three this characterization allows a complete classification of Besse contact manifolds (up to conjugation of Reeb flows) in terms of a suitable subclass of Seifert fibrations.