Positive loops - on a question by Eliashberg-Polterovich and a contact systolic inequality

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Peter Albers , Muenster
IAS Room S-101

In 2000 Eliashberg-Polterovich introduced the concept of positivity in contact geometry. The notion of a positive loop of contactomorphisms is central. A question of Eliashberg-Polterovich is whether C^0-small positive loops exist. We give a negative answer to this question. Moreover we give sharp lower bounds for the size which, in turn, gives rise to a L^\infty-contact systolic inequality. This should be contrasted with a recent result by Abbondandolo et. al. that on the standard contact 3-sphere no L^2-contact systolic inequality exists. The choice of L^2 is motivated by systolic inequalities in Riemannian geometry. This is joint work with U. Fuchs and W. Merry.