Quasi-isometric foliations (Q1208258)

A foliation \({\mathcal F}\) of a Riemannian manifold \(M\) is said to be quasi- isometric (resp. quasigeodesic) when the natural embeddings \(i:\tilde T\to\tilde M\) between the universal covers of the leaves \(T\) of \({\mathcal F}\) and of \(M\) are uniformly quasi-isometric, i.e. satisfy the inequalities \(k^{-1}d(x,y)<d'(i(x),i(y))<kd(x,y)\) for all \(x\) and \(y\in\tilde T\) and a universal constant \(k\), \(d\) and \(d'\) being path metrics on \(\tilde T\) and \(\tilde M\) (resp., when for any minimal length geodesic \(\gamma\) in \(\tilde M\) joining points \(x\) and \(y\) of \(\tilde T\) there exits a path \(\alpha\) in \(\tilde T\) joining \(x\) to \(y\) which is at a bounded distance from \(\gamma\)). The results of the paper show that codimension one foliations are rarely quasi-isometric or quasigeodesic. The main theorem says that there are no quasi-isometric or quasigeodesic codimension one foliations of closed 3- manifolds with hyperbolic fundamental groups.