On the relationship between contact topology and the dynamics of Reeb flows
Marcelo Ribeiro de Resende Alves · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · 2015
In this thesis we study the relations between the contact topological properties of contact manifolds and the dynamics of Reeb flows. On the first part of the thesis, we establish a relation between the growth of the cylindrical contact homology of a contact manifold and the topological entropy of Reeb flows on this manifold. We build on this to show in Chapter 6 that if a contact manifold M admits a hypertight contact form A for which the cylindrical contact homology has exponential homotopical growth rate, then the Reeb flow of every contact form on M has positive topological entropy. Using this result, we exhibit in Chapter 8 and 9 numerous new examples of contact 3-manifolds on which every Reeb flow has positive topological entropy. On Chapter 10 we present a joint result with Chris Wendl that gives a dynamical obstruction for contact 3-manifold to be planar. We then use the obstruction to show that a contact 3-manifold that possesses a Reeb flow that is a transversely orientable Anosov flow, cannot be planar. On Chapter 11 we study the topological entropy for Reeb flows on spherizations. The result we obtain is a refinement of a result of Macarini and Schlenk, that states that every Reeb flow on the unit tangent bundle U of a high genus surface S has positive topological entropy. We show that for any Reeb flow on U, the omega-limit of almost every Legendrian fiber is a compact invariant set on which the dynamics has positive topological entropy.