3d Convex Contact Forms And The Ruelle Invariant

Abstract

Let $X\subset {\mathbb{R}}^4$ be a convex domain with smooth boundary $Y$. We use a relation between the extrinsic curvature of $Y$ and the Ruelle invariant $\text{Ru}(Y)$ of the natural Reeb flow on $Y$ to prove that there exist constants $C>c>0$ independent of $Y$ such that \[c < \frac{\text{Ru}(Y)^2}{\text{vol}(X)} \cdot \text{sys}(Y) < C\] Here $\text{sys}(Y)$ is the systolic ratio, i.e. the square of the minimal period of a closed Reeb orbit of $Y$ divided by twice the volume of $X$. We then construct dynamically convex contact forms on $S^3$ that violate this bound using methods of Abbondandolo-Bramham-Hryniewicz-Salomão. These are the first examples of dynamically convex contact $3$-spheres that are not strictly contactomorphic to a convex boundary $Y$.

35 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Inventiones Mathematicae