Contact Structure-induced Symplectic Nearly Half-Flat $SU(3)$ Structure in Finite-$N$ Thermal ${\cal M}$-Theory

The ${\cal M}$-theory dual of thermal QCD-like theories constructed in arXiv:1306.4339, 2004.07259 involves, as shown in arXiv:2211.13186, a closed $G_2$-structure seven-fold $\mathcal{M}_7$ supporting Contact 3-Structures (C3S) that induce a ``transverse'' $SU(3)$-structure. We prove that this indu