Smoothability of proper foliations (Q1102581)

Compact, \(C^ 2\)-foliated manifolds of codimension one, having all leaves proper, are shown to be \(C^{\infty}\)-smoothable. More precisely, such a foliated manifold is homeomorphic to one of class \(C^{\infty}\). The corresponding statement is false for foliations with nonproper leaves. In that case, there are topological distinctions between smoothness of class \(C^ r\) and of class \(C^{r+1}\) for every nonnegative integer r.