Relative Framing of Transverse Knots

It is well-known that a knot in a contact manifold (M, C) transverse to a trivialized contact structure possesses the natural framing given by the first of the trivialization vectors along the knot. If the Euler class eC ∈ H (M) of C is nonzero, then C is nontrvivializable and the natural framing of transverse knots does not exist. We construct a new framing-type invariant of transverse knots called relative framing. It is defined for all tight C, all closed irreducible atoroidal M , and many other cases when eC 6= 0 and the classical framing invariant is not defined. We show that the relative framing distinguishes many transverse knots that are isotopic as unframed knots. It also allows one to define the Bennequin invariant of a zero-homologous transverse knot in contact manifolds (M, C) with eC 6= 0. Our recent result is that the groups of Vassiliev-Goussarov invariants of transverse and of framed knots are canonically isomorphic, when C is trivialized and transverse knots have the natural framing. We show that the same result is true whenever the relative framing is well-defined.