Vanishing theorems of the basic harmonic forms on a complete foliated Riemannian manifold (Q2364666)

This paper is devoted to a proof of the following main result. Theorem. Let \((M, g, {\mathcal F})\) be a complete foliated Riemannian manifold with all leaves compact, and assume the mean curvature form is bounded and coclosed. (1) If the transversal Ricci curvature of \(\mathcal F\) is positive definite, then every \(L^2\) basic harmonic 1-form \(\varphi\) with \(\varphi \in S_B\) is trivial. (2) If the curvature endomorphism of \(\mathcal F\) is positive definite, then every \(L^2\) basic harmonic \(r\)-form \(\varphi\), with \(\varphi \in S_B\) and \(0<r< \operatorname{codim}({\mathcal F})\), is trivial. Here \(S_B\) is the Sobolev space of basic forms whose derivatives belong to \(L^2\Omega_B({\mathcal F})\). Previous vanishing theorems for basic cohomology of Riemannian foliations can be found in the work of \textit{H. Kitahara} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 262, 429--435 (1980; Zbl 0454.57019)] and \textit{M. Min-Oo} et al. [J. Reine Angew. Math. 415, 167--174 (1991; Zbl 0716.53032)].