Abstract

We study the existence of positive loops of contactomorphisms on a Liouville-fillable contact manifold (&Sgr;, ξ = ker(α)). Previous results (see [1]) show that a large class of Liouville-fillable contact manifolds admit contractible positive loops. In contrast, we show that for any Liouville-fillable (&Sgr;, α) with dim(&Sgr;) ≥ 7, there exists a Liouville-fillable contact structure ξ' on &Sgr; which admits no positive loop at all. Further, ξ' can be chosen to agree with ξ' on the complement of a Darboux ball. We then define a relative version of orderability for a Legendrian submanifold, and discuss the relationship between the two notions.

Disciplines

Mathematics

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mathematics

First Advisor

Peter Albers

Second Advisor

Laszlo Lempert

Committee Chair

Peter Albers

Committee Co-Chair

Laszlo Lempert

Committee Member 1

Steve Bell

Committee Member 2

Ralph Kaufmann

Date of Award

Spring 2015

Included in

Mathematics Commons

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