$C^0$-Contact Geometry of Surfaces in 3-Manifolds

Abstract: We prove that contact homeomorphisms preserve characteristic foliations on surfaces in contact $3$-manifolds. More precisely, since the characteristic foliation is a singular $1$-dimensional foliation, we show that singular points are mapped to singular points, and that the image of every $1$-dimensional leaf is again a $1$-dimensional leaf in the image surface. As a consequence, regular coisotropic surfaces are $C^0$-rigid. In contrast, we show that contact convexity is $C^0$-flexible by constructing a contact homeomorphism that sends a convex $2$-torus to a non-convex one.