Foliations and global inversion (Q1045209)

Conditions under which a locally invertible map admits a global inverse are considered. The main theorem states that a local diffeomorphism \(f:M\to\mathbb R^n\) is bijective if and only if \(H_{n-1}(M)=0\) and the pre-image of every affine hyperplane is non-empty and acyclic. The proof involves foliations and tools from intersection theory. This topological result generalizes in finite dimensions the classical analytic theorem of Hadamard-Plastock, including its recent improvement by \textit{S. Nollet} and \textit{F. Xavier} [Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 8, No. 1, 17--28 (2002; Zbl 1008.58009)].