The problem of classification of Legendrian knots (links) up to isotopy in the class of Legendrian embeddings (Legendrian isotopy) naturally leads to the following two subproblems. The first of them is: which combinations of the three classical invariants can be realized by a Legendrian knot? (It is well-known that each invariant by itself can be realized by a Legendrian knot). The first step in this direction was done by Bennequin who proved that the Bennequin number of a Legendrian knot is less than twice its genus.
The second subproblem is whether there exist a pair of Legendrian knots which have the same classical invariants but are not Legendrian isotopic. Eliashberg and Fraser showed that this is impossible when knots are trivial as smooth knots. In the present paper, we develop a theory which allows us, in particular, to find a counterexample to this subproblem.
We study Legendrian singular links up to contact isotopy. Using a special property of the singular points, we define the singular connected sum of Legendrian singular links. This concept is a generalization of the connected sum and can be interpreted as a tangle replacement, which provides a way to classify Legendrian singular links. Moreover, we investigate several phenomena only occur in the Legendrian setup.
The surgery unknotting number of a Legendrian link is defined as the minimal number of particular oriented surgeries that are required to convert the link into a Legendrian unknot. Lower bounds for the surgery unknotting number are given in terms of classical invariants of the Legendrian link. The surgery unknotting number is calculated for every Legendrian link that is topologically a twist knot or a torus link and for every positive, Legendrian rational link. In addition, the surgery unknotting number is calculated for every Legendrian knot in the Legendrian knot atlas of Chongchitmate and N…
We use an estimate on the Thurston--Bennequin invariant of a Legendrian link in terms of its Kauffman-polynomial to show that links of topological unknots, e.g. the Borromean rings or the Whithead link, may not be represented by Legendrian links of Legendrian unknots.
Theory is developed for linear-quadratic at infinity generating families for Legendrian knots in R^3. It is shown that the unknot with maximal Thurston--Bennequin invariant of -1 has a unique linear-quadratic at infinity generating family, up to fiber-preserving diffeomorphism and stabilization. From this, invariant generating family polynomials are constructed for 2-component Legendrian links where each component is a maximal unknot. Techniques are developed to compute these polynomials, and computations are done for two families of Legendrian links: rational links and twist links. The polyno…
We define the Thurston-Bennequin polytope of a two-component link as the convex hull of all pairs of integers that arise as framings of a Legendrian representative. The main result of this paper is a description of the Thurston-Bennequin polytope for two-bridge links. As an application, we construct non-quasipositive surfaces in $\R^3$ all whose sub-annuli are quasipositive.
We introduce a generalization of the Lisca-Ozsváth-Stipsicz-Szabó Legendrian invariant $\mathfrak L$ to links in every rational homology sphere, using the collapsed version of link Floer homology. We represent a Legendrian link $L$ in a contact 3-manifold $(M,ξ)$ with a diagram $D$, given by an open book decomposition of $(M,ξ)$ adapted to $L$, and we construct a chain complex $cCFL^-(D)$ with a special cycle in it denoted by $\mathfrak L(D)$. Then, given two diagrams $D_1$ and $D_2$ which represent Legendrian isotopic links, we prove that there is a map between the corresponding chain complex…
Lisa Traynor has described an example of a two-component Legendrian `circular helix link' in the 1-jet space of the circle (with its canonical contact structure) that is topologically but not Legendrian isotopic to that same link with the order of the two components reversed. We give a complete classification of the Legendrian realisations of this topological link type, as well as all other `cable links' in that 1-jet space.
In this paper, we study contact surgeries along Legendrian links in the standard contact 3-sphere. On one hand, we use algebraic methods to prove the vanishing of the contact Ozsváth-Szabó invariant for contact $(+1)$-surgery along certain Legendrian two-component links. The main tool is a link surgery formula for Heegaard Floer homology developed by Manolescu and Ozsváth. On the other hand, we use contact-geometric argument to show the overtwistedness of the contact 3-manifolds obtained by contact $(+1)$-surgeries along Legendrian two-component links whose two components are linked in some sp…
We study the Ozsváth-Szabó-Thurston transverse invariant in combinatorial link Floer homology for certain transverse cables $\mathscr{L}_{p,q}$ of transverse link $L$ in $S^3$. Transverse cables $\mathscr{L}_{p,q}$ are constructed from the grid diagram of $L$. The main result is $\hatθ(\mathscr{L}_{p,q})=0$ if and only if $\hatθ(L)=0$ for $\frac{q}{p}$ sufficiently large. We also prove a similar result for invariants of Legendrian knots. Our proof uses an inclusion map $i$ of certain grid complexes associated to $L$ and $L_{p,q}$. We use these results to generate many infinite families of exam…
It is shown that Legendrian (resp. transverse) cable links in the 3-sphere with its standard tight contact structure, i.e. links consisting of an unknot and a cable of that unknot, are classified by their oriented link type and the classical invariants (Thurston-Bennequin invariant and rotation number in the Legendrian case, self-linking number in the transverse case). The analogous result is proved for torus knots in the 1-jet space of the circle with its standard tight contact structure.
We extend Turaev's definition of torsion invariants of 3-dimensional manifolds equipped with non-singular vector fields, by allowing (suitable) tangency circles to the boundary, and manifolds with non-zero Euler characteristic. We show that these invariants apply in particular to (the exterior of) Legendrian links in contact 3-manifolds. Our approach uses a combinatorial encoding of vector fields, based on standard spines. In this paper we extend this encoding from closed manifolds to manifolds with boundary.
We show that a link in an open book can be realized as a strongly quasipositive braid if and only if it bounds a Legendrian ribbon with respect to the associated contact structure. This generalizes a result due to Baader and Ishikawa for links in the three-sphere. We highlight some related techniques for determining whether or not a link is strongly quasipositive, emphasizing applications to fibered links and satellites.
In \cite{GZ}, Gilmer and Zhong established the existence of an invariant for links in $S^1\times S^2$ which is a rational function in variables $a$ and $s$ and satisfies the HOMFLY-PT skein relations. We give formulas for evaluating this invariant in terms of a standard, geometrically simple basis for the HOMFLY-PT skein module of the solid torus. This allows computation of the invariant for arbitrary links in $S^1\times S^2$ and shows that the invariant is in fact a Laurent polynomial in $a$ and $z= s -s^{-1}$. Our proof uses connections between HOMFLY-PT skein modules and invariants of Legen…
In recent joint works of the present author with M.Prasolov and V.Shastin a new technique for distinguishing Legendrian knots has been developed. In this paper the technique is extended further to provide a tool for distinguishing transverse knots. It is shown that the equivalence problem for transverse knots with trivial orientation-preserving symmetry group is algorithmically solvable. In a future paper the triviality condition for the orientation-preserving symmetry group will be dropped.
A correspondence is studied by H. Matsuda between front projections of Legendrian links in the standard contact structure for 3-space and rectangular diagrams. In this paper, we introduce braided rectangular diagrams, and study a relationship with Legendrian links in the standard contact structure for 3-space. We show Alexander and Markov Theorems for Legendrian links in 3-space.
We use the spanning tree model for Khovanov homology to study Legendrian links. This leads to an alternative proof for Ng's Khovanov bound for the Thurston-Bennequin number and to both a necessary and a sufficient condition for this bound to be sharp.
We prove that there are at least as many exact embedded Lagrangian fillings as seeds for Legendrian links of affine type $\tilde{\mathsf{D}} \tilde{\mathsf{E}}$. We also provide as many Lagrangian fillings with certain symmetries as seeds of type $\tilde{\mathsf{B}}_n$, $\tilde{\mathsf{F}}_4$, $\tilde{\mathsf{G}}_2$, and $\mathsf{E}_6^{(2)}$. These families are the first known Legendrian links with infinitely many fillings that exhaust all seeds in the corresponding cluster structures. Furthermore, we show that Legendrian realization of Coxeter mutation of type $\tilde{\mathsf{D}}$ corresponds…
The Thurston-Bennequin invariant provides one notion of self-linking for any homologically-trivial Legendrian curve in a contact three-manifold. Here we discuss related analytic notions of self-linking for Legendrian knots in Euclidean space. Our definition is based upon a reformulation of the elementary Gauss linking integral and is motivated by ideas from supersymmetric gauge theory. We recover the Thurston-Bennequin invariant as a special case.
We study an $A_\infty$ category associated to Legendrian links in $\mathbb{R}^3$ whose objects are $n$-dimensional representations of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra of the link. This representation category generalizes the positive augmentation category and we conjecture that it is equivalent to a category of sheaves of microlocal rank $n$ constructed by Shende, Treumann, and Zaslow. We establish the cohomological version of this conjecture for a family of Legendrian $(2,m)$ torus links.
Differential graded algebra invariants are constructed for Legendrian links in the 1-jet space of the circle. In parallel to the theory for R^3, Poincare-Chekanov polynomials and characteristic algebras can be associated to such links. The theory is applied to distinguish various knots, as well as links that are closures of Legendrian versions of rational tangles. For a large number of two-component links, the Poincare-Chekanov polynomials agree with the polynomials defined through the theory of generating functions. Examples are given of knots and links which differ by an even number of horiz…
We prove that there are at least seeds many exact embedded Lagrangian fillings for Legendrian links of type $\mathsf{ADE}$. We also provide seeds many Lagrangian fillings with certain symmetries for type $\mathsf{BCFG}$. Our main tools are $N$-graphs and the combinatorics of seed patterns of finite type.
We introduce a notion of cardinality for the augmentation category associated to a Legendrian knot or link in standard contact R^3. This `homotopy cardinality' is an invariant of the category and allows for a weighted count of augmentations, which we prove to be determined by the ruling polynomial of the link. We present an application to the augmentation category of doubly Lagrangian slice knots.
Associated to Legendrian links in the standard contact three-space, Ruling polynomials are Legendrian isotopy invariants, which also compute augmentation numbers, that is, the points-counting of augmentation varieties for Legendrian links (up to a normalized factor) \cite{HR15}. In this article, we generalize this picture to Legendrian tangles, which are morally the pieces obtained by cutting Legendrian link fronts along 2 vertical lines. Moreover, we show that the Ruling polynomials for Legendrian tangles satisfy the composition axiom. In the special case of Legendrian knots, our arguments pr…
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…
Given a Legendrian link in $\#^k(S^1\times S^2)$, we extend the definition of a normal ruling from $J^1(S^1)$ given by Lavrov and Rutherford and show that the existence of an augmentation to any field of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra over $\mathbb{Z}[t,t^{-1}]$ is equivalent to the existence of a normal ruling of the front diagram. For Legendrian knots, we also show that any even graded augmentation must send $t$ to $-1$. We use the correspondence to give nonvanishing results for the symplectic homology of certain Weinstein $4$-manifolds. We show a similar correspondence …
We show that the ungraded ruling invariants of a Legendrian link can be realized as certain coefficients of the Kauffman polynomial which are non-vanishing if and only if the upper bound for the Bennequin number given by the Kauffman polynomial is sharp. This resolves positively a conjecture of Fuchs. Using similar methods a result involving the upper bound given by the HOMFLY polynomial and 2-graded rulings is proved.
It is shown that, in the 1-jet space of the circle, the swapping and the flyping procedures, which produce topologically equivalent links, can produce nonequivalent legendrian links. Each component of the links considered is legendrian isotopic to the 1-jet of the 0-function, and thus cannot be distinguished by the classical rotation number or Thurston-Bennequin invariants. The links are distinguished by calculating invariant polynomials defined via homology groups associated to the links through the theory of generating functions. The many calculations of these generating function polynomials…
For a Legendrian $(2,n)$ torus knot or link with maximal Thurston-Bennequin number, Ekholm, Honda, and Kálmán constructed $C_n$ exact Lagrangian fillings, where $C_n$ is the $n$-th Catalan number. We show that these exact Lagrangian fillings are pairwise non-isotopic through exact Lagrangian isotopy. To do that, we compute the augmentations induced by the exact Lagrangian fillings $L$ to $\mathbb{Z}_2[H_1(L)]$ and distinguish the resulting augmentations.
We present the first examples of elements in the fundamental group of the space of Legendrian links in the standard contact 3-sphere whose action on the Legendrian contact DGA is of infinite order. This allows us to construct the first families of Legendrian links that can be shown to admit infinitely many Lagrangian fillings by Floer-theoretic techniques. These families include the first known Legendrian links with infinitely many fillings that are not rainbow closures of positive braids, and the smallest Legendrian link with infinitely many fillings known to date. We discuss how to use our e…
For Legendrian links in the 1-jet space of $S^1$ we show that the 1-graded ruling polynomial may be recovered from the Kauffman skein module. For such links a generalization of the notion of normal ruling is introduced. We show that the existence of such a generalized normal ruling is equivalent to sharpness of the Kauffman polynomial estimate for the Thurston-Bennequin number as well as to the existence of an ungraded augmentation of the Chekanov-Eliashberg DGA. Parallel results involving the HOMFLY-PT polynomial and 2-graded generalized normal rulings are established.
We show that for any Legendrian link $L$ in the $1$-jet space of $S^1$ the $2$-graded ruling polynomial, $R^2_L(z)$, is determined by the Thurston-Bennequin number and the HOMFLY-PT polynomial. Specifically, we recover $R^2_L(z)$ as a coefficient of a particular specialization of the HOMFLY-PT polynomial. Furthermore, we show that this specialization may be interpreted as the standard inner product on the algebra of symmetric functions that is often identified with a certain subalgebra of the HOMFLY-PT skein module of the solid torus. In contrast to the $2$-graded case, we are able to use $0$-…
We establish an upper bound for the Thurston-Bennequin number of a Legendrian link using the Khovanov homology of the underlying topological link. This bound is sharp in particular for all alternating links, and knots with nine or fewer crossings.
We resolve a question of Fuchs and Tabachnikov by showing that there is a Legendrian knot in standard contact three-space with zero Maslov number which is not Legendrian isotopic to its mirror. The proof uses the differential graded algebras of Chekanov.
We provide combinatorial realizations, according to the usual objects/moves scheme, of the following three topological categories: (1) pairs (M,v) where M is a 3-manifold (up to diffeomorphism) and v is a (non-singular vector) field, up to homotopy; here possibly the boundary of M is non-empty and v may be tangent to the boundary, but only in a concave fashion, and homotopy should preserve tangency type; (2) framed links L in M, up to framed isotopy; (3) triples (M,v,L), with (M,v) as above and L transversal to v, up to pseudo-Legendrian isotopy (transversality-preserving simultaneous homotopy…
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.
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 $L(p,1)$.
Grid diagrams encode useful geometric information about knots in S^3. In particular, they can be used to combinatorially define the knot Floer homology of a knot K in S^3, and they have a straightforward connection to Legendrian representatives of K in (S^3, ξ_\st), where ξ_\st is the standard, tight contact structure. The definition of a grid diagram was extended to include a description for links in all lens spaces, resulting in a combinatorial description of the knot Floer homology of a knot K in L(p, q) for all p > 0. In the present article, we explore the connection between lens space gri…
We define a differential graded algebra for Legendrian graphs and tangles in the standard contact Euclidean three space. This invariant is defined combinatorially by using ideas from Legendrian contact homology. The construction is distinguished from other versions of Legendrian contact algebra by the vertices of Legendrian graphs. A set of countably many generators and a generalized notion of equivalence are introduced for invariance. We show a van Kampen type theorem for the differential graded algebras under the tangle replacement. Our construction recovers many known algebraic construction…
Let $(X^{m+1}, g)$ be a globally hyperbolic spacetime with Cauchy surface diffeomorphic to an open subset of $\mathbb R^m$. The Legendrian Low conjecture formulated by Natário and Tod says that two events $x,y\inß$ are causally related if and only if the Legendrian link of spheres $\mathfrak S_x, \mathfrak S_y$ whose points are light geodesics passing through $x$ and $y$ is non-trivial in the contact manifold of all light geodesics in $X$. The Low conjecture says that for $m=2$ the events $x,y$ are causally related if and only if $\mathfrak S_x, \mathfrak S_y$ is non-trivial as a topological l…
We establish tools to facilitate the computation and application of the Chekanov-Eliashberg differential graded algebra (DGA), a Legendrian-isotopy invariant of Legendrian knots in standard contact three-space. More specifically, we reformulate the DGA in terms of front projection, and introduce the characteristic algebra, a new invariant derived from the DGA. We use our techniques to distinguish between several previously indistinguishable Legendrian knots and links.
