On the automorphism group of foliations with geometric transverse structures (Q2137863)

This paper is a study of the group of diffeomorphisms that preserve a foliation. On the negative side, the authors construct a foliation whose group of foliation preserving diffeomorphisms cannot be endowed with a structure of a topological group that has a topology finer than the \(C^0\) topology, which is second countable and locally path-connected. In other words it doesn't admit a natural Frechet Lie group structure. On the positive side, they prove, in the case of a transversely holomorphic foliation and in the case of a Riemannian foliation, that the group of diffeomorphisms, that preserve the foliation and also preserve the transverse geometric structure, have the structure of a strong IHL Lie group in the sense of [\textit{H. Omori}, Infinite dimensional Lie transformation groups. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1974; Zbl 0328.58005)]. Finally they consider deformations of smooth foliations in this context, showing that having an automorphism group which is not locally path-connected is an obstruction to the existence of a smooth local moduli space.