Umbilic foliations with integrable normal bundle (Q2404305)

The authors prove the following: Let \(\mathcal F\) be a codimension-one umbilical foliation on a space form \(M\) of nonnegative constant curvature \(c\). Suppose that the length of the mean curvature vector \(H\) of the leaves of \(\mathcal F\) attains a maximum at a point of \(M\). Then, \(M\) is flat and looks locally as a Riemannian product of totally geodesic leaves of \(\mathcal F\) and those of its complementary normal foliation. A similar result has been obtained in codimension greater than 1 under the additional assumption of integrability of the normal plane field \(T{\mathcal F}^\perp\).