Codimension one foliations without compact leaves (Q1897464)

In the study of foliations an important problem consists in the analysis of the compact leaves. Novikov's theorem states that every foliation of certain three-dimensional manifolds has a compact leaf. The purpose of this paper is to show that there is no such result for \(C^1\) codimension one foliations in dimensions greater than three. Theorem: Let \(M\) be a smooth \((C^\infty)\) closed manifold of dimension \(n \geq 4\) with a \(C^\infty\) codimension one foliation \(F_0\). Then \(M\) has a codimension one foliation \(F_1\) with no compact leaves, locally defined by a \(C^1\) differential 1-form and such that all the leaves are \(C^\infty\) submanifolds of \(M\). Furthermore, \(F_1\) can be chosen \(C^1\)-concordant to \(F_0\) and such that their tangent plane fields \(TF_0\) and \(TF_1\) are homotopic as subbundles of the tangent bundle \(TM\). The method consists in an explicit \(C^1\) construction modifying the given foliation \(F_0\). From this theorem one obtains the following Corollary: Every smooth closed connected manifold of dimension \(n \geq 4\) with vanishing Euler characteristic has a codimension one foliation with no compact leaves locally defined by a \(C^1\)-form and with all leaves smooth. Such a foliation exists in every homotopy class of tangent plane field and of Haefliger \(\Gamma^1_1\)-structures. Two attractive questions are formulated by the author. The paper also contains a construction of foliations without compact leaves on \(S^1 \times S^{n-1}\) \((n \geq 4)\).