Round surgery and contact structures on 3-manifolds

Abstract

Contact round surgery of contact 3-manifolds is introduced in this paper. By using this method, an alternative proof of the existence of a contact structure on any closed orientable 3-manifold is given. It is also proved that any contact structure on any closed orientable 3-manifold is constructed from the standard contact structure on the 3-dimensional sphere by contact round surgeries. For the proof, important operations in contact topology, the Lutz twist and the Giroux torsion, are described in terms of contact round surgeries.