Gradient flows within plane fields (Q1969351)

The authors deal with a gradient flow within plane fields. Let \(M\) denote a compact oriented three-manifold. A plane field \(\eta\) on \(M\) is a subbundle of the tangent bundle \(TM\) which associates secondly to each point \(p\in M\) a two-dimensional subspace \(\eta(p) \subset T_pM\). Unlike line fields, a plane field cannot always be integrated to yield a two-dimensional foliation \({\mathcal F}\). The authors show that there are strong restrictions on the types of gradient flows realized within plane fields: Such flows lie on the boundary of the space of nonsingular Morse-Smale flows. In the case of an integrable plane field they show that the restrictions are even finer, forcing the foliations on surface bundles. Moreover they show that the situation is completely different in the case of contact plane fields.