Algebraic Torsion in Contact Manifolds

We extract an invariant taking values in \mathbbNè{￥}{\mathbb{N}\cup\{\infty\}} , which we call the order of algebraic torsion, from the Symplectic Field Theory of a closed contact manifold, and show that its finiteness gives obstructions to the existence of symplectic fillings and exact symplectic cobordisms. A contact manifold has algebraic torsion of order 0 if and only if it is algebraically overtwisted (i.e. has trivial contact homology), and any contact 3-manifold with positive Giroux torsion has algebraic torsion of order 1 (though the converse is not true). We also construct examples for each k ? \mathbbN{k \in \mathbb{N}} of contact 3-manifolds that have algebraic torsion of order k but not k − 1, and derive consequences for contact surgeries on such manifolds.