Horizontal vector fields and Seifert fiberings (Q2663384)

The author gives a classification of the topology of horizontal vector fields on Seifert fiber spaces; horizontal means that the vector field is nowhere tangent to the Seifert fibering. The main observation is that a horizontal vector field corresponds to a fiber-preserving map from the Seifert fiber space to the unit tangent bundle of the base orbifold. The author calls an orbifold \(\Sigma\) a good orbifold if there exists a Riemannian surface \(S\) of constant curvature and a finite group of isometries \(G\) acting on \(S\) such that \(\Sigma = S/G\), with the orbifold structure of \(\Sigma\) coming from the smooth structure of \(S\). An orbifold is bad if it is not good. \par A good orbifold \(\Sigma\) is called elliptic if the Euler characteristic \(\chi(\Sigma)>0\), parabolic if \(\chi(\Sigma)=0\), and hyperbolic if \(\chi(\Sigma)<0\). \par In the Introduction, the author first pays attention to Seifert fiber spaces where the base orbifold is a bad orbifold. These are lens spaces; each lens space \(L(p,q)\) supports infinitely many distinct Seifert fiberings. In Theorem 1.1, he supposes \(M\) is diffeomorphic to the lens space \(L(p,q)\) with \(p\geq 0\). (1) If \(p=1\) or \(p=2\), then every Seifert fibering on \(M\) has a horizontal vector field. (2) If \(p\geq 3\) and \(q \equiv \pm 1 \pmod{p}\), then \(M\) has infinitely many Seifert fiberings which support horizontal vector fields and infinitely many which do not. (3) If \(p\geq 8\), \(p\) is divisible by \(4\) and \(q \equiv \frac{1}{2}\,p \pm 1 \pmod{p}\), then \(M\) has exactly one Seifert fibering which supports a horizontal vector field and others do not. (4) For all other cases of \(p\) and \(q\), no Seifert fibering on \(M\) has a horizontal vector field. Theorem 1.1 is proved in Section 5. \par In Section 6, the author considers Seifert fiberings over elliptic orbifolds (that is, the orbifold is finitely covered by the \(2\)-sphere). \par Next he considers, in Section 7, Seifert fiberings over parabolic orbifolds (such an orbifold is covered by the Euclidean plane and corresponds to a wallpaper group with only rotational symmetry). \par In Section 8, he considers the most general case -- for hyperbolic orbifolds. \par Section 9 is the study of the homotopy classes of horizontal vector fields, and Section 10 considers Seifert fiberings on manifolds with boundary. \par The author's work was inspired (in part) by the classification of horizontal foliations on Seifert fiber spaces by [\textit{R. Naimi}, Comment. Math. Helv. 69, No. 1, 155--162 (1994; Zbl 0797.55009)].