A foliated metric rigidity theorem for higher rank irreducible symmetric spaces (Q1342766)

Let \(\mathcal F\) be a smooth foliation of a compact manifold \(M\) admitting two leafwise metrics \(g\) and \(\gamma\) smoothly varying in the transverse direction. Let suppose that the universal cover of each leaf under \(g\) is isometric to an irreducible simply connected symmetric space of noncompact type \(Z\) of \(\text{rank} \geq 2\). The problem discussed in this paper is the following: under which assumptions can we obtain that the same property holds for the metric \(\gamma\)? Assuming that there exists a transverse invariant measure \(\tau\) of finite total mass and that any leaf has nonpositive sectional curvature under \(\gamma\), the authors prove that for any leaf \(L\) in the support of \(\tau\), the universal cover of \(L\) under \(\gamma\) is homothetic to \(Z\) (by homothetic one means isometric after multiplying the metric by a positive constant). Let \(u_ t : (M, {\mathcal F}, g) \to (M, {\mathcal F}, \gamma)\) denote the leafwise heat flow starting at the identity map. The essential step in the proof is the following: there exists a subsequence \(t_ k\) such that \(u_{t_ k}\) be convergent to some map \(v\). It follows that, along any leaf, \(v\) is either constant or homothetic. Since it is impossible, in a measurable varying way, to select a point from each leaf in a nonnegligible collection of leaves the conclusion follows.