On real analytic foliations and the center problem (Q1817009)

The authors consider germs of analytic orientable foliations at the origin in \(\mathbb{R}^2\). These are given by germs of analytic forms at the origin. Singular germs are those whose form vanishes at the origin. Singular germs of foliations give rise to a number of classical problems. The best known of these is the problem of the center: under what conditions are all leaves Jordan curves? A recent theorem by H. Żołądek states for polynomial germs that all foliations with a center are either integrable or reversible. The authors show by an example that this no longer holds true for analytic germs. An idea used to study germs of foliations, and in particular to construct this example, is that of projective holonomy. The authors prove that many germs of diffeomorphisms of \(\mathbb{C}\), fixing the origin, can be realized as the projective holonomy groups for certain germs of analytic foliations. They subsequently show how the holonomy group is a useful analytic invariant for the foliation. Geometric and dynamical properties of the foliation such as integrability of reversibility can be read off algebraic properties of the group, such as solvability in the sense of Galois or resonances between the generators of the group.