Sign and vanishing conjecture for boundary strata of Reeb flows

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Let β\beta be a smooth contact form on a compact connected manifold XX, and let vβv_\beta be its boundary-generic Reeb vector field. For the boundary strata ∂j±X(vβ)\partial_j^\pm X(v_\beta), the following assertions are conjectured.

Boundary-strata conjecture. If jj is even, then β∣∫(∂j+X(vβ))\beta|_{\mathsf{\int}(\partial_j^+X(v_\beta))} is a contact form away from a set of measure zero, and

∓[β∧(dβ)2n−j2]∣∂j±X(vβ)≥0,\mp\left[\beta\wedge(d\beta)^{\frac{2n-j}{2}}\right]\big|_{\partial_j^\pm X(v_\beta)}\geq 0,

while

β∧(dβ)2n−j2∣∣∂j+1X(vβ)≡0.\left.\left.\beta\wedge(d\beta)^{\frac{2n-j}{2}}\right|\right|_{\partial_{j+1}X(v_\beta)}\equiv 0.

If jj is odd, then dβ∣∫(∂j+X(vβ))d\beta|_{\mathsf{\int}(\partial_j^+X(v_\beta))} is symplectic away from a set of measure zero, and

±(dβ)2n+1−j2∣∂j±X(vβ)≥0,\pm(d\beta)^{\frac{2n+1-j}{2}}\big|_{\partial_j^\pm X(v_\beta)}\geq 0,

while

(dβ)2n+1−j2∣∣∂j+1X(vβ)≡0.\left.\left.(d\beta)^{\frac{2n+1-j}{2}}\right|\right|_{\partial_{j+1}X(v_\beta)}\equiv 0.

These assertions predict a systematic contact or symplectic structure, sign condition, and vanishing condition on the successive boundary strata of a boundary-generic Reeb flow. The source gives examples motivating the claim but no resolution evidence.

References

Primary source

Gabriel Katz, “Recovering contact forms from boundary data”, arXiv:2309.14604 (2026).

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