We consider S^1-families of Legendrian knots in the standard contact R^3. We define the monodromy of such a loop, which is an automorphism of the Chekanov-Eliashberg contact homology of the starting (and ending) point. We prove this monodromy is a homotopy invariant of the loop. We also establish techniques to address the issue of Reidemeister moves of Lagrangian projections of Legendrian links. As an application, we exhibit a loop of right-handed Legendrian torus knots which is non-contractible in the space Leg(S^1,R^3) of Legendrian knots, although it is contractible in the space Emb(S^1,R^3) of smooth knots. For this result, we also compute the contact homology of what we call the Legendrian closure of a positive braid and construct an augmentation for each such link diagram.
The study of the Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian knots was started by D. Fuchs and S. Tabachnikov who showed that the groups of complex-valued Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian and of framed knots in the standard contact $R^3$ are canonically isomorphic. Recently we constructed the first examples where Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian and of framed knots are different, and Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian knots distinguish Legendrian knots that are isotopic as framed knots and homotopic as Legendrian immersions. This raised the question what information about Legendrian knots can be ca…
We characterize which Legendrian $4$-plat knots in the standard contact $3$-space have exact orientable Lagrangian fillings. As a corollary, we show that the underlying smooth knot types of fillable Legendrian $4$-plats are positive.
We show that there exists a Legendrian knot with maximal Thurston-Bennequin invariant whose contact homology is trivial. We also provide another Legendrian knot which has the same knot type and classical invariants but nonvanishing contact homology.
In this paper we will show how to classify Legendrian and transverse knots in the knot type of "sufficiently positive" cables of a knot in terms of the classification of the underlying knot. We will also completely explain the phenomena of "Legendrian large" cables. These are Legendrian representatives of cables that have Thurston-Bennequin invariant larger that the framing coming from the cabling torus. Such examples have only recently, and unexpectedly, been found. We will also give criteria that determines the classification of Legendrian and transverse knots the the knot type of negative c…
By examining knot Floer homology, we extend a result of Ozsváth and Stipsicz and show further infinitely many Legendrian and transversely non-simple knot types among two-bridge knots. We give sufficient conditions of Legendrian and transverse non-simplicity on the continued fraction expansion of the corresponding rational number.
In this paper we classify Legendrian and transverse knots in the knot types obtained from positive torus knots by cabling. This classification allows us to demonstrate several new phenomena. Specifically, we show there are knot types that have non-destabilizable Legendrian representatives whose Thurston-Bennequin invariant is arbitrarily far from maximal. We also exhibit Legendrian knots requiring arbitrarily many stabilizations before they become Legendrian isotopic. Similar new phenomena are observed for transverse knots. To achieve these results we define and study "partially thickenable" t…
Using the combinatorial approach to knot Floer homology, we define an invariant for Legendrian knots in the three-sphere, which takes values in link Floer homology. This invariant can be used to also construct an invariant of transverse knots.
In this paper we study Legendrian knots in the knot types of satellite knots. In particular, we classify Legendrian Whitehead patterns and learn a great deal about Legendrian braided patterns. We also show how the classification of Legendrian patterns can lead to a classification of the associated satellite knots if the companion knot is Legendrian simple and uniformly thick. This leads to new Legendrian and transverse classification results for knots in the 3-sphere with its standard contact structure as well as a more general perspective on some previous classification results.
We present an atlas of Legendrian knots in standard contact three-space. This gives a conjectural Legendrian classification for all knots with arc index at most 9, including alternating knots through 7 crossings and nonalternating knots through 9 crossings. Our method involves a computer search of grid diagrams and applies to transverse knots as well. The atlas incorporates a number of new, small examples of phenomena such as transverse nonsimplicity and non-maximal non-destabilizable Legendrian knots, and gives rise to new infinite families of transversely nonsimple knots.
In this note, we first classify all topological torus knots lying on the Heegaard torus in lens spaces, and then we study Legendrian representatives of these knots. We classify oriented positive Legendrian torus knots in the universally tight contact structures on the lens spaces up to contactomorphism.
Suppose that L is a null--homologous Legendrian knot in a contact 3--manifold. We determine the connection between the sutured invariant of the complement of L and the Legendrian invariant defined by Lisca, Ozsvath, Stipsicz and Szabo. In particular, we derive a vanishing theorem for the Legendrian invariant in the presence of Giroux torsion in the complement of the knot, and reprove several known properties of the Legendrian invariant from this perspective.
In the symplectization of standard contact $3$-space, $\mathbb R \times \mathbb R^3$, it is known that an orientable Lagrangian cobordism between a Legendrian knot and itself, also known as an orientable Lagrangian endocobordism for the Legendrian knot, must have genus $0$. We show that any Legendrian knot has a non-orientable Lagrangian endocobordism, and that the crosscap genus of such a non-orientable Lagrangian endocobordism must be a positive multiple of $4$. The more restrictive exact, non-orientable Lagrangian endocobordisms do not exist for any exactly fillable Legendrian knot but do e…
We prove that the class of topological knot types that are both Legendrian simple and satisfy the uniform thickness property (UTP) is closed under cabling. An immediate application is that all iterated cabling knot types that begin with negative torus knots are Legendrian simple. We also examine, for arbitrary numbers of iterations, iterated cablings that begin with positive torus knots, and establish the Legendrian simplicity of large classes of these knot types, many of which also satisfy the UTP. In so doing we obtain new necessary conditions for both the failure of the UTP and Legendrian n…
We prove that any Legendrian knot in $(S^3,ξ_{std})$ bounds an exact Lagrangian surface in $\mathbb{R}^4\setminus B^4$ after a sufficient number of stabilizations. In order to show this, we construct a family combinatorial moves on knot projections with some additional data that correspond to Lagrangian cobordisms between knots.
We show that all positive contact surgeries on every Legendrian figure-eight knot in $(S^3, ξ_{\rm{std}})$ result in an overtwisted contact structure. The proof uses convex surface theory and invariants from Heegaard Floer homology.
In this paper, we construct the first families of distinct Lagrangian ribbon disks in the standard symplectic 4-ball which have the same boundary Legendrian knots, and are not smoothly isotopic or have non-homeomorphic exteriors.
We use the contact invariant defined in [2] to construct a new invariant of Legendrian knots in Kronheimer and Mrowka's monopole knot homology theory (KHM), following a prescription of Stipsicz and Vértesi. Our Legendrian invariant improves upon an earlier Legendrian invariant in KHM defined by the second author in several important respects. Most notably, ours is preserved by negative stabilization. This fact enables us to define a transverse knot invariant in KHM via Legendrian approximation. It also makes our invariant a more likely candidate for the monopole Floer analogue of the "LOSS" in…
We study satellites of Legendrian knots in R^3 and their relation to the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra of the knot. In particular, we generalize the well-known correspondence between rulings of a Legendrian knot in R^3 and augmentations of its DGA by showing that the DGA has finite-dimensional representations if and only if there exist certain rulings of satellites of the knot. We derive several consequences of this result, notably that the question of existence of ungraded finite-dimensional representations for the DGA of a Legendrian knot depends only on the topological typ…
We show that for a large class of contact 3-manifolds the groups of Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian and of framed knots are canonically isomorphic. As a corollary, we obtain that the group of finite order Arnold's $J^+$-type invariants of wave fronts on a surface $F$ is isomorphic to the group of Vassiliev invariants of framed knots in the spherical cotangent bundle $ST^*F$ of $F$. On the other hand we construct the first examples of contact manifolds for which Vassiliev invariants of Legendrian knots can distinguish Legendrian knots that realize isotopic framed knots and are homotopic as L…
Examples are given of prime Legendrian knots in the standard contact 3-space that have arbitrarily many distinct Chekanov polynomials, refuting a conjecture of Lenny Ng. These are constructed using a new `Legendrian tangle replacement' technique. This technique is then used to show that the phenomenon of multiple Chekanov polynomials is in fact quite common. Finally, building on unpublished work of Yufa and Branson, a tabulation is given of Legendrian fronts, along with their Chekanov polynomials, representing maximal Thurston-Bennequin Legendrian knots for each knot type of nine or fewer cros…
We study the behavior of Legendrian and transverse knots under the operation of connected sums. As a consequence we show that there exist Legendrian knots that are not distinguished by any known invariant. Moreover, we classify Legendrian knots in some non-Legendrian simple knot types.
In 1997, Chekanov gave the first example of a Legendrian nonsimple knot type: the $m(5_2)$ knot. Epstein, Fuchs, and Meyer extended his result by showing that there are at least $n$ different Legendrian representatives with maximal Thurston--Bennequin number of the twist knot $K_{-2n}$ with crossing number $2n+1$. In this paper we give a complete classification of Legendrian and transverse representatives of twist knots. In particular, we show that $K_{-2n}$ has exactly $\lceil\frac{n^2}2\rceil$ Legendrian representatives with maximal Thurston--Bennequin number, and $\lceil\frac{n}{2}\rceil$ t…
We define invariants of null--homologous Legendrian and transverse knots in contact 3--manifolds. The invariants are determined by elements of the knot Floer homology of the underlying smooth knot. We compute these invariants, and show that they do not vanish for certain non--loose knots in overtwisted 3--spheres. Moreover, we apply the invariants to find transversely non--simple knot types in many overtwisted contact 3--manifolds.
In this note, we observe that the hat version of the Heegaard Floer invariant of Legendrian knots in contact three-manifolds defined by Lisca-Ozsvath-Stipsicz-Szabo can be combinatorially computed. We rely on Plamenevskaya's combinatorial description of the Heegaard Floer contact invariant.
We study Legendrian knots in a cabled knot type. Specifically, given a topological knot type K, we analyze the Legendrian knots in knot types obtained from K by cabling, in terms of Legendrian knots in the knot type K. As a corollary of this analysis, we show that the (2,3)-cable of the (2,3)-torus knot is not transversely simple and moreover classify the transverse knots in this knot type. This is the first classification of transverse knots in a non-transversely-simple knot type. We also classify Legendrian knots in this knot type and exhibit the first example of a Legendrian knot that does …
We strengthen the link between holomorphic and generating-function invariants of Legendrian knots by establishing a formula relating the number of augmentations of a knot's contact homology to the complete ruling invariant of Chekanov and Pushkar.
We prove a complete classification theorem for loose Legendrian knots in an oriented 3-manifold, generalizing results of Dymara and Ding-Geiges. Our approach is to classify knots in a $3$-manifold $M$ that are transverse to a nowhere-zero vector field $V$ up to the corresponding isotopy relation. Such knots are called $V$-transverse. A framed isotopy class is simple if any two $V$-transverse knots in that class which are homotopic through $V$-transverse immersions are $V$-transverse isotopic. We show that all knot types in $M$ are simple if any one of the following three conditions hold: $1.$ …
Let E be a circle bundle over a Riemann surface that supports a contact structure transverse to the fibers. This paper presents a combinatorial definition of a differential graded algebra (DGA) that is an invariant of Legendrian knots in E. The invariant generalizes Chekanov's combinatorial DGA invariant of Legendrian knots in the standard contact 3-space using ideas from Eliashberg, Givental, and Hofer's contact homology. The main difficulty lies in dealing with what are ostensibly 1-parameter families of generators for the DGA; these are solved using ``Morse-Bott'' techniques. As an applicat…
An elementary stabilization of a Legendrian link $L$ in the spherical cotangent bundle $ST^*M$ of a surface $M$ is a surgery that results in attaching a handle to $M$ along two discs away from the image in $M$ of the projection of the link $L$. A virtual Legendrian isotopy is a composition of stabilizations, destabilizations and Legendrian isotopies. In contrast to Legendrian knots, virtual Legendrian knots enjoy the property that there is a bijective correspondence between the virtual Legendrian knots and the equivalence classes of Gauss diagrams. We study virtual Legendrian isotopy classes o…
In this article we study the differential graded algebra (DGA) invariant associated to Legendrian knots in tight lens spaces. Given a grid number one diagram for a knot in L(p, q), we show how to construct a special Lagrangian diagram suitable for computing the DGA invariant for the Legendrian knot specified by the diagram. We then specialize to L(p, p - 1) and show that for two families of knots, the existence of an augmentation of the DGA depends solely on the value of p.
A connection between holomorphic and generating family invariants of Legendrian knots is established; namely, that the existence of a ruling (or decomposition) of a Legendrian knot is equivalent to the existence of an augmentation of its contact homology. This result was obtained independently and using different methods by Fuchs and Ishkhanov. Close examination of the proof yields an algorithm for constructing a ruling given an augmentation. Finally, a condition for the existence of an augmentation in terms of the rotation number is obtained.
We compute the Chekanov-Eliashberg contact homology of what we call the Legendrian closure of a positive braid. We also construct an augmentation for each such link diagram. Then we apply the monodromy techniques established in an earlier paper to a certain natural loop in the space L' of positive Legendrian (p,q) torus knots to show that L' has a nontrivial fundamental group, which is mapped non-injectively into the fundamental group of K by the map induced by inclusion (here, K is the space of all smooth positive (p,q) torus knots). This is the first example that Legendrian and classical kno…
In this paper, we show that any topological knot or link in $S^1 \times S^2$ sits on a planar page of an open book decomposition whose monodromy is a product of positive Dehn twists. As a consequence, any knot or link type in $S^1 \times S^2$ has a Legendrian representative having support genus zero. We also show this holds for some knots and links in the lens spaces $L(p,1)$.
We apply Heegaard-Floer homology theory to establish generalized slicing Bennequin inequalities closely related to a recent result of T. Mrowka and Y. Rollin proved using Seiberg-Witten monopoles.
The main result of this paper is that, off of a `fundamental class' in degree 1, the linearized Legendrian contact homology obeys a version of Poincare duality between homology groups in degrees k and -k. Not only does the result itself simplify calculations, but its proof also establishes a framework for analyzing cohomology operations on the linearized Legendrian contact homology.
Each ruling of a Legendrian link can be naturally treated as a surface. For knots, the ruling is 2-graded if and only if the surface is orientable. For 2-graded rulings of homogeneous (in particular, alternating) knots, we prove that the genus of this surface is at most the genus of the knot. While this is not true in general, we do prove that the canonical genus (a.k.a. diagram genus) of any knot is an upper bound for the genera of its 2-graded rulings.
We give a combinatorial description of the Legendrian differential graded algebra associated to a Legendrian knot in PxR, where P is a punctured Riemann surface. As an application we show that for any integer k and any homology class h in H_1(PxR) there are k Legendrian knots all representing h which are pairwise smoothly isotopic through a formal Legendrian isotopy but which lie in mutually distinct Legendrian isotopy classes.
We construct a combinatorial invariant of Legendrian knots in standard contact three-space. This invariant, which encodes rational relative Symplectic Field Theory and extends contact homology, counts holomorphic disks with an arbitrary number of positive punctures. The construction uses ideas from string topology.
We present classification results for exceptional Legendrian realisations of torus knots. These are the first results of that kind for non-trivial topological knot types. Enumeration results of Ding-Li-Zhang concerning tight contact structures on certain Seifert fibred manifolds with boundary allow us to place upper bounds on the number of tight contact structures on the complements of torus knots; the classification of exceptional realisations of these torus knots is then achieved by exhibiting sufficiently many realisations in terms of contact surgery diagrams. We also discuss a couple of ge…
We use monopole Floer homology for sutured manifolds to construct invariants of Legendrian knots in a contact 3-manifold. These invariants assign to a knot K in Y elements of the monopole knot homology KHM(-Y,K), and they strongly resemble the knot Floer homology invariants of Lisca, Ozsváth, Stipsicz, and Szabó. We prove several vanishing results, investigate their behavior under contact surgeries, and use this to construct many examples of non-loose knots in overtwisted 3-manifolds. We also show that these invariants are functorial with respect to Lagrangian concordance.
We prove that the LOSS and GRID invariants of Legendrian links in knot Floer homology behave in certain functorial ways with respect to decomposable Lagrangian cobordisms in the symplectization of the standard contact structure on $\mathbb{R}^3$. Our results give new, computable, and effective obstructions to the existence of such cobordisms.
For any Legendrian knot in (R^3,ker(dz-ydx)), we show that the existence of an augmentation to any field of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra over Z[t,t^{-1}] is equivalent to the existence of a ruling of the front diagram, generalizing results of Fuchs, Ishkhanov, and Sabloff. We also show that any even graded augmentation must send t to -1.
Let L be a Legendrian knot in R^3 with the standard contact structure. In [10], a map was constructed from equivalence classes of Morse complex sequences for L, which are combinatorial objects motivated by generating families, to homotopy classes of augmentations of the Legendrian contact homology algebra of L. Moreover, this map was shown to be a surjection. We show that this correspondence is, in fact, a bijection. As a corollary, homotopic augmentations determine the same graded normal ruling of L and have isomorphic linearized contact homology groups. A second corollary states that the cou…
We investigate the ramifications of the Legendrian satellite construction on the relation of Lagrangian cobordism between Legendrian knots. Under a simple hypothesis, we construct a Lagrangian concordance between two Legendrian satellites by stacking up a sequence of elementary cobordisms. This construction narrows the search for "non-decomposable" Lagrangian cobordisms and yields new families of decomposable Lagrangian slice knots. Finally, we show that the maximum Thurston-Bennequin number of a smoothly slice knot provides an obstruction to any Legendrian satellite of that knot being Lagrang…
Contact homology for Legendrian submanifolds in standard contact $(2n+1)$-space is rigorously defined using moduli spaces of holomorphic disks with Lagrangian boundary conditions in complex $n$-space. It provides new invariants of Legendrian isotopy. Using these invariants the theory of Legendrian isotopy is shown to be very rich. For example, infinite families of pairwise non-isotopic Legendrian $n$-spheres and $n$-tori, which are indistinguishable by means of previously known invariants, are constructed. In a sense, the definition of contact homology presented in this paper is a high dimensi…
