A dynamical characterization of universally tight lens spaces

Abstract

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a closed connected co-orientable contact $3$-manifold $(M,\xi)$ to be a standard lens space based on assumptions on the Reeb flow associated to a defining contact form. Our methods also provide rational global surfaces of section for nondegenerate Reeb flows on $(L(p,q),\xi_{\rm std})$ with prescribed binding orbits.