Codimension one foliations without compact leaves (Q1897464): Difference between revisions

In the study of foliations an important problem consists in the analysis of the compact leaves. Novikov's theorem states that every foliation of certain three-dimensional manifolds has a compact leaf. The purpose of this paper is to show that there is no such result for \(C^1\) codimension one foliations in dimensions greater than three. Theorem: Let \(M\) be a smooth \((C^\infty)\) closed manifold of dimension \(n \geq 4\) with a \(C^\infty\) codimension one foliation \(F_0\). Then \(M\) has a codimension one foliation \(F_1\) with no compact leaves, locally defined by a \(C^1\) differential 1-form and such that all the leaves are \(C^\infty\) submanifolds of \(M\). Furthermore, \(F_1\) can be chosen \(C^1\)-concordant to \(F_0\) and such that their tangent plane fields \(TF_0\) and \(TF_1\) are homotopic as subbundles of the tangent bundle \(TM\). The method consists in an explicit \(C^1\) construction modifying the given foliation \(F_0\). From this theorem one obtains the following Corollary: Every smooth closed connected manifold of dimension \(n \geq 4\) with vanishing Euler characteristic has a codimension one foliation with no compact leaves locally defined by a \(C^1\)-form and with all leaves smooth. Such a foliation exists in every homotopy class of tangent plane field and of Haefliger \(\Gamma^1_1\)-structures. Two attractive questions are formulated by the author. The paper also contains a construction of foliations without compact leaves on \(S^1 \times S^{n-1}\) \((n \geq 4)\).