Legendrian and transverse twist knots

Abstract

In 1997, Chekanov gave the first example of a Legendrian nonsimple knot type: the $m(5_2)$ knot. Epstein, Fuchs, and Meyer extended his result by showing that there are at least $n$ different Legendrian representatives with maximal Thurston--Bennequin number of the twist knot $K_{-2n}$ with crossing number $2n+1$. In this paper we give a complete classification of Legendrian and transverse representatives of twist knots. In particular, we show that $K_{-2n}$ has exactly $\lceil \frac{n^2}{2}\rceil$ Legendrian representatives with maximal Thurston--Bennequin number, and $\lceil \frac{n}{2}\rceil$ transverse representatives with maximal self-linking number. Our techniques include convex surface theory, Legendrian ruling invariants, and Heegaard Floer homology.

27 pages, v3: added figure, other minor changes, to appear in JEMS

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