Lifting the 3-dimensional invariant of 2-plane fields on 3-manifolds

Homotopy classes of plane fields on 3-manifolds have been classified using a 2-dimensional invariant Γ and a 3-dimensional invariant θ by R. Gompf. Under regular covering maps, Γ lifts in the natural way. The lifting property of θ remained unresolved. In this paper, we present the lifting property of θ together with applications to Lens spaces. The applications help in specifying the liftings of the contact structures of the Lens space L ( p , 1 ) when lifted to S 3 .