Contact structures on open 3-manifolds (Q854482)

The author studies tight contact structures on an open 3-manifold \(V\) that is the interior of a compact manifold. He introduces new proper contact isotopy invariants called the slope at infinity and the division number at infinity. Several classification theorems for \(T^2\times[0,\infty)\), \(T^2\times\mathbb R\) and \(S^1\times\mathbb R^2\) are proposed using these concepts (compare [\textit{Y. Eliashberg}, Int. Math. Res. Not. 1993, No.3, 87-91 (1993; Zbl 0784.53022)]). It is proved that there are infinitely many tight contact structures on \(T^2\times[0,1)\) which cannot be extended to a tight contact structure on \(T^2\times[0,\infty)\). Similar results can be obtained on \(T^2\times\mathbb R\) and \(S^1\times\mathbb R^2\). Moreover, generalizing a result by Y. Eliashberg, it is shown that there are uncountably many tight (also overtwisted) contact structures that are contactomorphic under a special assumption on \(V\).