The Godbillon-Vey invariant and the foliated cobordism group (Q1201486)

Let \(\mathcal F\) be a transversely oriented foliation by surfaces of a closed, oriented 3-manifold \(M\). Recall that the Godbillon-Vey invariant \(GV({\mathcal F})\) is a real number obtained by integrating the Godbillon-Vey form \(\eta\wedge d\eta\) over \(M\). It is a challenging problem to determine, for a given foliation, whether or not \(GV({\mathcal F})\) vanishes. In this paper, the author gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the vanishing: \(GV({\mathcal F})=0\) if and only if \(\mathcal F\) is foliated cobordant to a transversely oriented foliation \(\mathcal G\) of codimension one on a closed, oriented 3-manifold \(N\) and there exists a sequence \(\{{\mathcal G}_ k\}^ \infty_{k=1}\) of nullcobordant foliations of \(N\) converging to \(\mathcal G\).