On the indexes of harmonic foliations (Q2706709)

The index of a harmonic foliation was first studied by \textit{F. W. Kamber} and \textit{Ph. Tondeur} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 275, 257-263 (1983; Zbl 0532.57016)]. In the paper under review, it is shown that if \(M\) is a member of one of two classes of Riemannian manifolds, then for every harmonic Riemannian foliation \({\mathcal F}\) on \(M\), the index of \({\mathcal F}\) is at least \(\text{codim}({\mathcal F}) + 1\). The first class of manifolds consists of submanifolds \(M\) of Euclidean space with parallel mean curvature whose second fundamental form satisfies an extra condition. The second class consists of \(n\)-dimensional compact irreducible Riemannian homogeneous spaces \(M\) whose scalar curvature is larger than \((n/2) \eta_1 \), where \(\eta_1\) is the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on \(M\). Note that Kamber and Tondeur had shown that the index of \({\mathcal F}\) is at least \(\text{codim}({\mathcal F}) + 1\) when \({\mathcal F}\) is a harmonic Riemannian foliation on the sphere.