Transverse knots determined by their cyclic branched covers

Abstract

Harvey-Kawamuro-Plamenevskaya demonstrated the existence of (transversely) non-isotopic transverse knots such that for every $n>1$ their $n$-fold cyclic branched covers are contactomorphic. In this short note, we construct other examples of non-isotopic transverse knots that have contactomorphic cyclic branched covers. Conversely, we prove that the transverse isotopy classes of many transverse knots are actually determined by the contactomorphism type of their cyclic branched covers.

12 pages, 1 figure. Comments welcome!