Contact topology and CR geometry in three dimensions

We study low-dimensional problems in topology and geometry via a study of contact and Cauchy-Riemann ($CR$) structures. A contact structure is called spherical if it admits a compatible spherical $CR$ structure. We will talk about spherical contact structures and our analytic tool, an evolution equation of $CR$ structures. We argue that solving such an equation for the standard contact 3-sphere is related to the Smale conjecture in 3-topology. Furthermore, we propose a contact analogue of Ray-Singer's analytic torsion. This ''contact torsion'' is expected to be able to distinguish among ''spherical space forms'' $\{\Gamma\backslash S^{3}\}$ as contact manifolds. We also propose the study of a certain kind of monopole equation associated with a contact structure. In view of the recently developed theory of contact homology algebras, we will discuss its overall impact on our study.Comment: 11 pages. Based on the author's notes for his talks at the third Asian Mathematical Conference (Quezon City, Oct. 2000) and the Contact Geometry Conference (Stanford, Dec. 2000). To appear in Proceedings of the third Asian Mathematical Conference 2000 (Quezon City, Philippines

Rigidity of automorphisms and spherical CR structures

We establish Bochner-type formulas for operators related to $CR$ automorphisms and spherical $CR$ structures. From such formulas, we draw conclusions about rigidity by making assumptions on the Tanaka-Webster curvature and torsion.Comment: 9 page

Cauchy-Riemann geometry and contact topology in three dimensions

We introduce a global Cauchy-Riemann($CR$)-invariant and discuss its behavior on the moduli space of $CR$-structures. We argue that this study is related to the Smale conjecture in 3-topology and the problem of counting complex structures. Furthermore, we propose a contact-analogue of Ray-Singer's analytic torsion. This ``contact torsion'' is expected to be able to distinguish among ``contact lens'' spaces. We also propose the study of a certain kind of monopole equation associated with a contact structure.Comment: 22 pages,review pape

Flows and a tangency condition for embeddable CR structures in dimension 3

We study the fillability (or embeddability) of 3-dimensional $CR$ structures under the geometric flows. Suppose we can solve a certain second order equation for the geometric quantity associated to the flow. Then we prove that if the initial $CR$ structure is fillable, then it keeps having the same property as long as the flow has a solution. We discuss the situation for the torsion flow and the Cartan flow. In the second part, we show that the above mentioned second order operator is used to express a tangency condition for the space of all fillable or embeddable $CR$ structures at one embedded in $\mathbb{C}^{2}.$Comment: 20 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:math/020205

Deformation of fillable CR structures

We study the fillability (or embeddability) of $CR$ structures under the gauge-fixed Cartan flow. We prove that if the initial $CR$ structure is fillable with nowhere vanishing Tanaka-Webster curvature and free torsion, then it keeps having the same property after a short time. In the Appendix, we show the uniqueness of the solution to the gauge-fixed Cartan flow.Comment: 17 page

The Harnack estimate for the Yamabe flow on CR manifolds of dimension 3

We deform the contact form by the amount of the Tanaka-Webster curvature on a closed spherical $CR$ three-manifold. We show that if a contact form evolves with free torsion and positive Tanaka-Webster curvature as initial data, then a certain Harnack inequality for the Tanaka-Webster curvature holds.Comment: 13 page

Properly embedded and immersed minimal surfaces in the Heisenberg group

We study properly embedded and immersed p(pseudohermitian)-minimal surfaces in the 3-dimensional Heisenberg group. From the recent work of Cheng, Hwang, Malchiodi, and Yang, we learn that such surfaces must be ruled surfaces. There are two types of such surfaces: band type and annulus type according to their topology. We give an explicit expression for these surfaces. Among band types there is a class of properly embedded p-minimal surfaces of so called helicoid type. We classify all the helicoid type p-minimal surfaces. This class of p-minimal surfaces includes all the entire p-minimal graphs (except contact planes) over any plane. Moreover, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for such a p-minimal surface to have no singular points. For general complete immersed p-minimal surfaces, we prove a half space theorem and give a criterion for the properness.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Monopoles and contact 3-manifolds

We propose the study of some kind of monopole equations directly associated with a contact structure. Through a rudimentary analysis about the solutions, we show that a closed contact 3-manifold with positive Tanaka-Webster curvature and vanishing torsion must be either not symplectically semifillable or having torsion Euler class of the contact structure.Comment: 25page

Deformation of spherical CR structures and the universal Picard variety

We study deformation of spherical $CR$ circle bundles over Riemann surfaces of genus > 1. There is a one to one correspondence between such deformation space and the so-called universal Picard variety. Our differential-geometric proof of the structure and dimension of the unramified universal Picard variety has its own interest, and our theory has its counterpart in the Teichmuller theory.Comment: 57 page

Variations of generalized area functionals and p-area minimizers of bounded variation in the Heisenberg group

We prove the existence of a continuous $BV$ minimizer with $C^{0}$ boundary value for the $p$-area (pseudohermitian or horizontal area) in a parabolically convex bounded domain. We extend the domain of the area functional from $BV$ functions to vector-valued measures. Our main purpose is to study the first and second variations of such a generalized area functional including the contribution of the singular part. By giving examples in Riemannian and pseudohermitian geometries, we illustrate several known results in a unified way. We show the contribution of the singular curve in the first and second variations of the $p$-area for a surface in an arbitrary pseudohermitian $3$-manifold.Comment: 34 page