New metric structures on \(\mathfrak{g}\)-foliations (Q2139060)

Let \(\mathfrak{g}\) be a Lie algebra of dimension \(p\). A regular foliation \(\mathcal{F}\) of dimension \(p\) on a connected manifold \(M\) is said to be a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-foliation if there exist \(p\) complete vector fields on \(M\) whose restrictions to each leaf of \(\mathcal{F}\) form a parallelism of the same leaf, which is Lie algebra isomorphic to \(\mathfrak{g}\). A detailed study of manifolds with geometrical structures admitting a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-foliation has been the subject of relevant researches. For instance, on any almost contact metric (a.c.m.) manifold one considers the foliation generated by the Reeb vector field which is a \(1\)-dimensional \(\mathfrak{g}\)-foliation. Analogously, a Riemannian manifold endowed with an \(f\)-structure with parallelizable kernel admits a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-foliation of higher dimension. In this paper the authors introduce new types of structures on a manifold which admits a \(\mathfrak{g}\)-foliation and discuss their main properties. They define weak almost contact, weak almost \(p\)-contact, weak globally framed \(f\)-structures and weak para-\(\varphi\)-structures. A sufficient condition for the existence of a compatible Riemannian metric is stated in each of the mentioned cases. Then one can consider weak a.c.m. manifolds, weak almost \(p\)-contact metric manifolds, and so on. We notice that these concepts are more general than the classical ones. For instance, an a.c.m. structure is a particular weak a.c.m. structure. The authors pay attention to those structures with positive partial Ricci curvature. In this case, using the flow of metrics, they construct a deformation retraction of the space of the considered weak structures into the subspace of the corresponding classical structures. This allows to prove that, under suitable hypotheses, a weak structure can be deformed to a classical structure of the same type. In particular, if a Riemannian manifold \((M,g_0)\) admits a weak Sasakian structure whose Reeb vector field is a unit Killing vector and all the mixed sectional curvatures are positive, then there exists a smooth family of metrics that converges to a limit metric giving a Sasakian structure on \(M\).