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Vincent Colin

Publications and source records attributed to Vincent Colin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

On the Finiteness of Anosov flows on $3$-manifolds via Contact Geometry

Following Eliashberg-Thurston and Mitsumatsu, one can associate a transverse pair of oppositely oriented contact structures to any Anosov flow. We show that the isotopy classes of these contact structures completely determine the flow up to isotopy orbit equivalence. This then implies that the number of Anosov flows modulo isotopy orbit equivalence on a closed hyperbolic $3$-manifold is finite. This approach also yields an explicit bound on the number of orbit equivalence classes of Anosov flows in terms of the number of universally tight contact structures. In addition, we show finiteness of pseudo-Anosov flows for which the complement of the singular orbits is atoroidal and, in the non-hyperbolic case, we obtain a control on the dynamics of Anosov flows on the hyperbolic pieces of the JSJ-decomposition.

math.DS↗
arXiv2025

Towards a symplectic Khovanov homology for links in fibered $3$-manifolds

The goal of this paper is twofold: (i) define a symplectic Khovanov type homology for a transverse link in a fibered closed $3$-manifold $M$ (with an auxiliary choice of a homotopy class of loops that intersect each fiber once) and (ii) give conjectural combinatorial dga descriptions of surface categories that appear in (i). These dgas are higher-dimensional analogs of the strands algebras in bordered Heegaard Floer homology, due to Lipshitz-Ozsv\'ath-Thurston \cite{LOT}.

math.SG↗
arXiv2025

Homoclinic orbits, Reeb chords and nice Birkhoff sections for Reeb flows in 3D

We prove that for a $C^\infty$-generic contact form defining a given co-oriented contact structure on a closed $3$-manifold, every hyperbolic periodic Reeb orbit admits a transverse homoclinic connection in each of the branches of its stable and unstable manifolds. We exploit this result to prove that for a $C^\infty$-generic contact form defining a given co-oriented contact structure, given any finite collection $\Gamma$ of periodic Reeb orbits and any Legendrian link $L$, there exists a global surface of section (embedded Birkhoff section) for the Reeb flow that contains $\Gamma$ in its boundary, and that contains in its interior a Legendrian link that is Legendrian isotopic to $L$ by a $C^0$-small isotopy. Finally we prove that if the Reeb vector field admits a $\partial$-strong Birkhoff section then every Legendrian knot has infinitely many geometrically distinct Reeb chords, except possibly when the ambient manifold is a lens space or the sphere and the Reeb flow has exactly two periodic orbits. In particular, $C^\infty$-generically on the contact form there are infinitely many geometrically distinct Reeb chords for every Legendrian knot. In the case of geodesic flows, every Legendrian knot has infinitely many disjoint chords, without any further assumptions.

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arXiv2024

Sutured Heegaard Floer and embedded contact homologies are isomorphic

We prove the equivalence of the sutured versions of Heegaard Floer homology, monopole Floer homology, and embedded contact homology. As applications we show that the knot versions of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology are equivalent and that product sutured 3-manifolds are characterized by the fact that they carry an adapted Reeb vector field without periodic orbits.

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arXiv2022

Generic properties of $3$-dimensional Reeb flows: Birkhoff sections and entropy

In this paper we use broken book decompositions to study Reeb flows on closed $3$-manifolds. We show that if the Liouville measure of a nondegenerate contact form can be approximated by periodic orbits, then there is a Birkhoff section for the associated Reeb flow. In view of Irie's equidistribution theorem, this is shown to imply that the set of contact forms whose Reeb flows have a Birkhoff section contains an open and dense set in the $C^\infty$-topology. We also show that the set of contact forms whose Reeb flows have positive topological entropy is open and dense in the $C^\infty$-topology.

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arXiv2020

Applications of higher-dimensional Heegaard Floer homology to contact topology

The goal of this paper is to set up the general framework of higher-dimensional Heegaard Floer homology, define the contact class, and use it to give an obstruction to the Liouville fillability of a contact manifold and a sufficient condition for the Weinstein conjecture to hold. We discuss several classes of examples including those coming from analyzing a close cousin of symplectic Khovanov homology and the analog of the Plamenevskaya invariant of transverse links.

math.SG↗
arXiv2020

On the existence of supporting broken book decompositions for contact forms in dimension 3

We prove that in dimension 3 every nondegenerate contact form is carried by a broken book decomposition. As an application we get that if M is a closed irreducible oriented 3-manifold that is not a graph manifold, for example a hyperbolic manifold, then every nondegenerate Reeb vector field on M has positive topological entropy. Moreover, we obtain that on a closed 3-manifold, every nondegenerate Reeb vector field has either two or infinitely many periodic orbits, and two periodic orbits are possible only on the sphere or on a lens space.

math.DS↗
arXiv2018

Foliations, contact structures and their interactions in dimension three

We survey the interactions between foliations and contact structures in dimension three, with an emphasis on sutured manifolds and invariants of sutured contact manifolds. This paper contains two original results: the fact that a closed orientable irreducible 3-manifold M with nonzero second homol-ogy carries a hypertight contact structure and the fact that an orientable, taut, balanced sutured 3-manifold is not a product if and only if it carries a contact structure with nontrivial cylindrical contact homology. The proof of the second statement uses the Handel-Miller theory of end-periodic diffeomorphisms of end-periodic surfaces.

math.SG↗
arXiv2018

Notes On Open Book Decompositions For Engel Structures

We relate open book decompositions of a 4-manifold M with its Engel structures. Our main result is, given an open book decomposition of M whose binding is a collection of 2-tori and whose monodromy preserves a framing of a page, the construction of an En-gel structure whose isotropic foliation is transverse to the interior of the pages and tangent to the binding. In particular the pages are contact man-ifolds and the monodromy is a contactomorphism. As a consequence, on a parallelizable closed 4-manifold, every open book with toric binding carries in the previous sense an Engel structure. Moreover, we show that amongst the supported Engel structures we construct, there is a class of loose Engel structures.

math.SG↗
arXiv2017

Topological entropy for Reeb vector fields in dimension three via open book decompositions

Given an open book decomposition of a contact three man-ifold (M, $\xi$) with pseudo-Anosov monodromy and fractional Dehn twist coefficient c = k n, we construct a Legendrian knot $\Lambda$ close to the stable foliation of a page, together with a small Legendrian pushoff $\Lambda$. When k $\ge$ 5, we apply the techniques of [CH2] to show that the strip Legen-drian contact homology of $\Lambda$ $\rightarrow$ $\Lambda$ is well-defined and has an exponential growth property. The work [Al2] then implies that all Reeb vector fields for $\xi$ have positive topological entropy.

math.SG↗
arXiv2016

Positive Legendrian isotopies and Floer Theory

Positive loops of Legendrian embeddings are examined from the point of view of Floer homology of Lagrangian cobordisms. This leads to new obstructions to the existence of a positive loop containing a given Legendrian, expressed in terms of the Legendrian contact homology of the Legendrian submanifold. As applications, old and new examples of orderable contact manifolds are obtained and discussed. We also show that contact manifolds admitting a filling of a Liouville domain with non-zero symplectic homology is strongly orderable in the sense of Liu.

math.SG↗
arXiv2013

The discriminant and oscillation lengths for contact and Legendrian isotopies

We define an integer-valued non-degenerate bi-invariant metric (the discriminant metric) on the universal cover of the identity component of the contactomorphism group of any contact manifold. This metric has a very simple geometric definition, based on the notion of discriminant points of contactomorphisms. Using generating functions we prove that the discriminant metric is unbounded for the standard contact structures on R^{2n} x S^1 and RP^{2n+1}. On the other hand we also show by elementary arguments that the discriminant metric is bounded for the standard contact structures on R^{2n+1} and S^{2n+1}. As an application of these results we get that the contact fragmentation norm is unbounded for R^{2n} x S^1 and RP^{2n+1}. By elaborating on the construction of the discriminant metric we then define a second integer-valued bi-invariant metric, that we call the discriminant oscillation metric. This second metric is non-degenerate if and only if the contact manifold is orderable in the sense of Eliashberg and Polterovich and, in this case, it is compatible with the partial order. Finally we define the discriminant and oscillation lengths of a Legendrian isotopy, and prove that they are unbounded for T^{\ast}B x S^1 for any closed manifold B, for RP^{2n+1} and for some 3-dimensional circle bundles.

math.SG↗
arXiv2012

The equivalence of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology III: from hat to plus

Given a closed oriented 3-manifold M, we establish an isomorphism between the Heegaard Floer homology group HF^+(-M) and the embedded contact homology group ECH(M). Starting from an open book decomposition (S,h) of M, we construct a chain map \Phi^+ from a Heegaard Floer chain complex associated to (S,h) to an embedded contact homology chain complex for a contact form supported by (S,h). The chain map \Phi^+ commutes up to homotopy with the U-maps defined on both sides and reduces to the quasi-isomorphism \Phi from "The equivalence of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology I, II" on subcomplexes defining the hat versions. Algebraic considerations then imply that the map \Phi^+ is a quasi-isomorphism.

math.GT↗
arXiv2012

The equivalence of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology via open book decompositions I

Given an open book decomposition (S,h) adapted to a closed, oriented 3-manifold M, we define a chain map from a certain Heegaard Floer chain complex associated to (S,h) to a certain embedded contact homology chain complex associated to (S,h), as defined in arXiv:1008.2734, and prove that it induces an isomorphism on the level of homology. This implies the isomorphism between the hat version of Heegaard Floer homology of -M and the hat version of embedded contact homology of M.

math.GT↗
arXiv2011

HF = ECH via open book decompositions: a summary

We sketch the proof of the equivalence between the hat versions of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology. The key point is to express these two Floer homology theories in terms of an open book decomposition of the ambient manifold.

math.SG↗
arXiv2010

Embedded contact homology and open book decompositions

This is the first of a series of papers devoted to proving the equivalence of Heegaard Floer homology and embedded contact homology (abbreviated ECH). In this paper we prove that, given a closed, oriented, contact $3$-manifold, there is an equivalence between ECH of the closed $3$-manifold and a version of ECH, defined on the complement of the binding of an adapted open book decomposition. In the appendix we give a full proof of the Morse-Bott gluing result that we need in this article and in the subsequent ones of the series proving the isomorphism between Heegaard Floer homology and ECH. V.8: we fixed a mistake in the appendix and added Yuan Yao as a coauthor.

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