Stein and Weinstein structures on disk cotangent bundles of surfaces

Abstract

Gompf (Ann Math (2) 148(2):619–693, 1998) describes a Stein domain structure on the disk cotangent bundle of any closed surface S by a Legendrian handlebody diagram. We prove that Gompf’s Stein domain is symplectomorphic to the disk cotangent bundle equipped with its canonical symplectic structure and the boundary of this domain is contactomorphic to the unit cotangent bundle of S equipped with its canonical contact structure. As a corollary, we obtain a surgery diagram for the canonical contact structure on the unit cotangent bundle of S.