On foliated circle bundles over closed orientable 3-manifolds

We show that there exists a family of smooth orientable circle bundles over closed orientable 3-manifolds each of which has a codimension-one foliation transverse to the fibres of class C ⁰ but has none of class C ³ . There arises a necessary condition induced from the Milnor-Wood inequality for the existence of a foliation transverse to the fibres of an orientable circle bundle over a closed orientable 3-manifold. We show that with some exceptions this necessary condition is also sufficient for the existence of a smooth transverse foliation if the base space is a closed Seifert fibred manifold. Received: May 13, 1996     

Attractors and an analog of the Lichnérowicz conjecture for conformal foliations

We prove that each codimension q ≥ 3 conformal foliation (M,F) either is Riemannian or has a minimal set that is an attractor. If (M,F) is a proper conformal foliation that is not Riemannian then there exists a closed leaf that is an attractor. We do not assume that M is compact. Moreover, if M is compact then a non-Riemannian conformal foliation (M,F) is a (Conf(S ^q ), S ^q )-foliation with a finite family of attractors, and each leaf of this foliation belongs to the basin of at least one attractor.     

Existence of codimension one foliations with minimal leaves

Every smooth closed manifold of dimension 4 or greater that has a smooth codimension one foliation, has such aC ¹ foliation whose leaves are minimal hypersurfaces for someC ¹ Riemannian metric.     

Harmonic forms and near-minimal singular foliations

For a closed 1-form with Morse singularities, Calabi discovered a simple global criterion for the existence of a Riemannian metric in which is harmonic. For a codimension 1 foliation , Sullivan gave a condition for the existence of a Riemannian metric in which all the leaves of are minimal hypersurfaces. The conditions of Calabi and Sullivan are strikingly similar. If a closed form has no singularities, then both criteria are satisfied and, for an appropriate choice of metric, is harmonic and the associated foliation is comprised of minimal leaves. However, when has singularities, the foliation is not necessarily minimal.? We show that the Calabi condition enables one to find a metric in which is harmonic and the leaves of the foliation are minimal outside a neighborhood U of the -singular set. In fact, we prove the best possible result of this type: we construct families of metrics in which, as U shrinks to the singular set, the taut geometry of the foliation outside U remains stable. Furthermore, all compact leaves missing U are volume minimizing cycles in their homology classes. Their volumes are controlled explicitly. Received: January 24, 2000     

Volume-Minimizing Foliations on Spheres

The volume of a k-dimensional foliation in a Riemannian manifold Mⁿ is defined as the mass of the image of the Gauss map, which is a map from M to the Grassmann bundle of k-planes in the tangent bundle. Generalizing the construction by Gluck and Ziller (Comment. Math. Helv. 61 (1986), 177–192), ‘singular’ foliations by 3-spheres are constructed on round spheres S⁴ⁿ⁺³, as well as a singular foliation by 7-spheres on S¹⁵, which minimize volume within their respective relative homology classes. These singular examples, even though they are not homologous to the graph of a foliation, provide lower bounds for volumes of regular three-dimensional foliations of S⁴ⁿ⁺³ and regular seven-dimensional foliations of S¹⁵, since the double of these currents will be homologous to twice the graph of any smooth foliation by 3-manifolds.The second author was supported during this research by grants from the Universidade de Sāo Paulo, FAPESP Proc. 1999/02684-5, and Lehigh University, and thanks those institutions for enabling the collaboration involved in this work.Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000). 53C12, 53C38.     

Weak stability of almost regular contact foliations

We prove that on a compact manifold, a contact foliation obtained by a smallC ¹ perturbation of an almost regular contact flow has at least two closed characteristics. This solves the Weinstein conjecture for contact forms which areC ¹-close to almost regular contact forms.Supported in part by NSF Grant DMS 90-01861     

Unique Ergodicity of Harmonic Currents On Singular Foliations of {\mathbb{P}^2}

Let F{\mathcal{F}} be a holomorphic foliation of \mathbbP²{\mathbb{P}^2} by Riemann surfaces. Assume all the singular points of F{\mathcal{F}} are hyperbolic. If F{\mathcal{F}} has no algebraic leaf, then there is a unique positive harmonic (1, 1) current T of mass one, directed by F{\mathcal{F}}. This implies strong ergodic properties for the foliation F{\mathcal{F}}. We also study the harmonic flow associated to the current T.     

Nondicritical $${\mathbb {C}^*}$$-actions on two-dimensional Stein manifolds

We study and classify actions of the complex multiplicative group on a nonsingular Stein surface with an isolated nondicritical singularity. We prove that the corresponding foliation exhibits a holomorphic first integral of a type F = f ⁿ g ^m where f and g are global holomorphic functions and . Under some additional conditions on the functions f and g we prove analytic linearization for the action. Our results can be viewed as extension of the original work of Masakazu Suzuki.     

Simultaneous uniformization for the leaves of projective foliations by curves

In this paper we prove that, given a holomorphic foliation by curves on P ⁿ , of degree 2, whose singularities have nondegenerate linear part, then there exists a hermitian metricg on P ⁿ -S (S=singular set) which is complete and induces strictly negative Gaussian curvature on the leaves of the foliation (Theorem B). This implies, in particular, that all leaves of the foliation are uniformized by the unit disc and that the set of uniformizations of the leaves is paracompact (Theorem A). We obtain also some consequences concerning the non existence of vanishing cycles in the sense of Novikov, the equivalence of the existence of a parabolic element in the group of deck transformations of the leaf and of a separatrix in the leaf, etc...     

Surfaces à points doubles isolés

We give a characterization of the generic projection on P ² of an algebraic surface of P ³ with a finite number of nodes. The construction of an algebraic surface of P ³ with a given number of nodes is thus equivalent to the construction of a plane curve with nodes and cusps in some special position. Received: November 9, 1996     

Foliated Lie and Courant Algebroids

If A is a Lie algebroid over a foliated manifold (M, F){(M, {\mathcal {F}})}, a foliation of A is a Lie subalgebroid B with anchor image TF{T{\mathcal {F}}} and such that A/B is locally equivalent with Lie algebroids over the slice manifolds of F{\mathcal F}. We give several examples and, for foliated Lie algebroids, we discuss the following subjects: the dual Poisson structure and Vaintrob's supervector field, cohomology and deformations of the foliation, integration to a Lie groupoid. In the last section, we define a corresponding notion of a foliation of a Courant algebroid A as a bracket–closed, isotropic subbundle B with anchor image TF{T{\mathcal {F}}} and such that B ^{^} /B{B^{ \bot } /B} is locally equivalent with Courant algebroids over the slice manifolds of F{\mathcal F}. Examples that motivate the definition are given.     

Hodge cohomology of some foliated boundary and foliated cusp metrics

For fibred boundary and fibred cusp metrics, Hausel, Hunsicker, and Mazzeo identified the space of L² harmonic forms of fixed degree with the images of maps between intersection cohomology groups of an associated stratified space obtained by collapsing the fibres of the fibration at infinity onto its base. In the present paper, we obtain a generalization of this result to situations where, rather than a fibration at infinity, there is a Riemannian foliation with compact leaves admitting a resolution by a fibration. If the associated stratified space (obtained now by collapsing the leaves of the foliation) is a Witt space and if the metric considered is a foliated cusp metric, then no such resolution is required.     

Laplacians and Spectrum for Singular Foliations

The author surveys Connes＇ results on the longitudinal Laplace operator along a （regular） foliation and its spectrum, and discusses their generalization to any singular foliation on a compact manifold. Namely, it is proved that the Laplacian of a singular foliation is an essentially self-adjoint operator （unbounded） and has the same spectrum in every （faithful） representation, in particular, in L2 of the manifold and L2 of a leaf. The author also discusses briefly the relation of the Baum-Connes assembly map with the calculation of the spectrum.     

Laminations and groups of homeomorphisms of the circle

If M is an atoroidal 3-manifold with a taut foliation, Thurston showed that π₁(M) acts on a circle. Here, we show that some other classes of essential laminations also give rise to actions on circles. In particular, we show this for tight essential laminations with solid torus guts. We also show that pseudo-Anosov flows induce actions on circles. In all cases, these actions can be made into faithful ones, so π₁(M) is isomorphic to a subgroup of Homeo(S ¹). In addition, we show that the fundamental group of the Weeks manifold has no faithful action on S ¹. As a corollary, the Weeks manifold does not admit a tight essential lamination with solid torus guts, a pseudo-Anosov flow, or a taut foliation. Finally, we give a proof of Thurston’s universal circle theorem for taut foliations based on a new, purely topological, proof of the Leaf Pocket Theorem. Oblatum 20-III-2002 & 30-IX-2002?Published online: 18 December 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Both authors partially supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.     

Une version feuilletée équivariante du théorème de translation de Brouwer

The Brouwer’s plane translation theorem asserts that for a fixed point free orientation preserving homeomorphism f of the plane, every point belongs to a Brouwer line: a proper topological embedding C of R, disjoint from its image and separating f(C) and f^–1(C). Suppose that f commutes with the elements of a discrete group G of orientation preserving homeomorphisms acting freely and properly on the plane. We will construct a G-invariant topological foliation of the plane by Brouwer lines. We apply this result to give simple proofs of previous results about area-preserving homeomorphisms of surfaces and to prove the following theorem: any Hamiltonian homeomorphism of a closed surface of genus g ≥ 1 has infinitely many contractible periodic points.      

A deformation lemma on aC 1 manifold

The classical construction of deformations by mean of pseudo-gradient vector fields requires theC ^1,1 regularity. Here, we are concerned with a deformation lemma for aC ¹ function on a manifold defined by aC ¹ functional. We will assume some coupled Palais-Smale conditions between the two functions. The deformation is constructed with the help of integral lines of pseudo-gradient vector fields on a foliation of the manifold. Three different constructions are used for a sub-manifold of codimension 1 in finite dimension, then in infinite dimension and lastly a sub-manifold of any finite codimension in an infinite dimensional Banach space.     

Modifying a branched surface to carry a foliation

We consider C¹ nonsingular flows on a closed 3-manifold under which there is no transverse disk that flows continuously back into its own interior. We provide an algorithm for modifying any branched surface transverse to such a flow ? that terminates in a branched surface carrying a foliation F precisely when F is transverse to ?. As a corollary, we find branched surfaces that do not carry foliations but that lift to ones that do.     

Invariant algebraic curves and rational first integrals of holomorphic foliations in ℂ<Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>(2)

In this paper, using the tools of algebraic geometry we provide sufficient conditions for a holomorphic foliation in ℂP(2) to have a rational first integral. Moreover, we obtain an upper bound of the degrees of invariant algebraic curves of a holomorphic foliation in ℂP(2). Then we use these results to prove that any holomorphic foliation of degree 2 does not have cubic limit cycles.     

Courbure totale des feuilletages des surfaces

The sum of the total curvatures of two orientable orthogonal foliations on the unit sphereS ²⊂R ³ is at least 4Π. The total curvature of a foliation with saddle singularities on a closed hyperbolic surfaceM is at least (12 Log 2–6 Log 3) ... |χ(M)|.