Quantitative tightness for three-dimensional contact manifolds: a sub-Riemannian approach

Abstract

Through the use of sub-Riemannian metrics we provide quantitative estimates for the maximal tight neighbourhood of a Reeb orbit on a three-dimensional contact manifold. Under appropriate geometric conditions we show how to construct closed curves which are boundaries of overtwisted disks. We introduce the concept of \emph{contact} Jacobi curve, and prove lower bounds of the so-called tightness radius (from a Reeb orbit) in terms of Schwarzian derivative bounds. We compare these results with the corresponding ones from [Etnyre, Komendarczyk, Massot - Invent. Math. 2012 and Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 2016], and we show that our estimates are sharp for classical model structures. We also prove similar, but non-sharp, estimates in terms of sub-Riemannian canonical curvature bounds. We apply our results to K-contact sub-Riemannian manifolds. In this setting, we prove a contact analogue of the celebrated Cartan--Hadamard theorem.