Shadows of Wave Fronts and Arnold-Bennequin Type Invariants of Fronts on Surfaces and Orbifolds

Abstract

A first order Vassiliev invariant of an oriented knot in an $S^1$-fibration and a Seifert fibration over a surface is constructed. It takes values in a quotient of the group ring of the first homology group of the total space of the fibration. It gives rise to an invariant of wave fronts on surfaces and orbifolds related to the Bennequin-type invariants of the Legendrian curves studied by F. Aicardi, V. Arnold, M. Polyak, and S. Tabachnikov. Formulas expressing these relations are presented. We also calculate Turaev's shadow for the Legendrian lifting of a wave front. This allows to use in the case of wave fronts all invariants known for shadows.