We give a purely contact and symplectic geometric characterization of Anosov flows in dimension 3 and set up a framework to systematically use tools from contact and symplectic geometry and topology in the study of Anosov dynamics. We also discuss some uniqueness results regarding the underlying (bi)-contact structures for an Anosov flow and give a characterization of Anosovity, based on Reeb flows.

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We discuss a metric description of the divergence of a (projectively) Anosov flow in dimension 3, in terms of its associated growth rates and give metric and contact geometric characterizations of when a projectively Anosov flow is Anosov. As an application, we show that, in the case of volume preserving flows, the bi-contact surgery operations of Salmoiraghi [37,38] can be applied in any arbitrary small neighborhood of a periodic orbit of such flows. In particular, for volume preserving Anosov flows, the Goodman-Fried's surgery can be performed, using the bi-contact surgery of [38]. We also give the first examples of taut contact hyperbolas [34] on hyperbolic manifolds, as well as a Reeb dynamical characterization of when a (projectively) Anosov is volume preserving.

We discuss a metric description of the divergence of a (projectively) Anosov flow in dimension 3, in terms of its associated expansion rates and give metric and contact geometric characterizations of when a projectively Anosov flow is Anosov. We then study the symmetries that the existence of an invariant volume form yields on the geometry of an Anosov flow, from various viewpoints of the theory of contact hyperbolas, Reeb dynamics, and Liouville geometry, and give characterizations of when an Anosov flow is volume preserving, in terms of those theories. We finally use our study to show that the bi-contact surgery operations of Salmoiraghi [Surgery on Anosov flows using bi-contact geometry. Preprint, 2021, arXiv:2104.07109; and Goodman surgery and projectively Anosov flows. Preprint, 2022, arXiv:2202.01328] can be applied in an arbitrary small neighborhood of a periodic orbit of any Anosov flow. In particular, we conclude that the Goodman surgery of Anosov flows can be performed using the bi-contact surgery operations of Salmoiraghi [Goodman surgery and projectively Anosov flows. Preprint, 2022, arXiv:2202.01328].