Reeb stability and the Gromov-Hausdorff limits of leaves in compact foliations (Q2515525)

Let \(X\) be a compact foliated space of dimension \(d\), smooth in the leaf direction, equipped with a smooth Riemannian metric on the leaves that varies continuously on the transverse direction with respect to the leafwise \(C^\infty\) topology. Motivated by the search of a generalization of the Reeb local stability theorem, the paper begins by asking the following question: When are nearby leaves similar in some sense? To give some answer, the author considers the leaf function \(x\mapsto L_x\), where \(L_x\) is the leaf through each \(x\in X\), having \(x\) as distinguished point. This function is a priori valued in the Gromov space of isometry classes of pointed proper metric spaces with the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence, but it is noted that in fact it is valued in a compact subspace defined by complete Riemannian \(d\)-manifolds, where the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence is equivalent to the \(C^\infty\) convergence. It is also observed that the leaf function is not continuous, even if \(L_x\) is replaced by its holonomy covering, \(\widetilde L_x\). Examples are given to illustrate this lack of continuity. However the main theorem shows that the leaf function has some kind of semicontinuity: For any convergent sequence \(x_n\to x\) in \(X\), if \(L_{x_n}\) is convergent to a pointed Riemannian manifold \(M\), then \(M\) is a pointed Riemannian covering of \(L_x\) covered by \(\widetilde L_x\). As applications of this result, new proofs are given of some known results: The continuity of the leaf function on the subspace of leaves without holonomy, the Reeb local stability theorem, the stability of compact leaves with finite holonomy, the lower semicontinuity of the volume of the leaves when they are compact, and geometric restrictions on surfaces to be realizable as leaves of minimal foliations on compact manifolds.