Sharp systolic inequalities for Reeb flows on the three-sphere

Abstract

The systolic ratio of a contact form $\alpha$ on the three-sphere is the quantity \[ \rho_{\mathrm{sys}}(\alpha) = \frac{T_{\min}(\alpha)^2}{\mathrm{vol}(S^3,\alpha\wedge d\alpha)}, \] where $T_{\min}(\alpha)$ is the minimal period of closed Reeb orbits on $(S^3,\alpha)$. A Zoll contact form is a contact form such that all the orbits of the corresponding Reeb flow are closed and have the same period. Our first main result is that $\rho_{\mathrm{sys}}\leq 1$ in a neighbourhood of the space of Zoll contact forms on $S^3$, with equality holding precisely at Zoll contact forms. This implies a particular case of a conjecture of Viterbo, a local middle-dimensional non-squeezing theorem, and a sharp systolic inequality for Finsler metrics on the two-sphere which are close to Zoll ones. Our second main result is that $\rho_{\mathrm{sys}}$ is unbounded from above on the space of tight contact forms on $S^3$.