Leafwise cohomology and rigidity of certain Lie group actions (Q4472769)

Let \(G\) be a contractible Lie group and assume that \(G\) admits a locally free smooth action \(\varphi\) on a closed manifold \(M\). The action is called parameter rigid if every locally free action \(\psi\) which is smoothly orbit equivalent to \(\varphi\) is in fact smoothly conjugate to an action which is the composition of an automorphism of \(G\) with \(\varphi\). The authors relate parameter rigidity for an action to cohomological properties of the foliation \(\mathcal {F}\) of \(M\) into the \(G\)-orbits. Namely, let \(H^1 (\mathcal{F})\) be the quotient of the vector space of smooth leafwise closed \(1\)-forms \(\omega\) on \(M\) by the space of leafwise differentials of smooth functions on \(M\). The authors show that for the orbit-foliation of any locally free \(\mathbb R^k\)-action one has \(\dim \, H^1 (\mathcal{F}) \geq k\), and equality holds if and only if the action is parameter rigid. There is also a stronger notion of rigidity for locally free actions \(\varphi\) of a general contractible Lie group \(G\), the so-called cocycle rigidity. By definition, this rigidity holds if every smooth cocycle \(a \colon M \times G \to G\) for the action is smoothly cohomologous to an endomorphism of \(G\). The authors show that an action is cocycle rigid if and only if for every smooth \(1\)-form \(\omega\) on \(M\) with values in the Lie algebra \(\mathcal {G}\) of \(G\) which satisfies \(d_\mathcal{F} \omega + [\omega \wedge \omega]= 0\) (where \(d_\mathcal{F}\) is the leafwise differential) there is an endomorphism \(\Phi\) of \(G\) and a smooth map \(b \colon M \to G\) with \(\omega = b^{-1} \, \Phi_* (\omega_0) \, b + b^{-1} \, db\) where \(\omega_0\) is induced from the canonical \(\mathcal {G}\)-valued \(1\)-form on \(G\). As an application, it is shown that the horocycle flow of a closed hyperbolic surface of constant curvature \(-1\) is not parameter rigid. However, for every hyperbolic automorphism \(A\) of the \(n\)-torus \(T^n\) whose characteristic polynomial is irreducible over \(\mathbb Q\), the action of the step \(1\) solvable group \(G\) which defines the weak stable foliation of the suspension flow of \(A\) is parameter rigid. Finally, the authors show that for every cocompact discrete torsion free subgroup \(\Gamma\) of the universal covering \(\widetilde{\text{SL}}(2, \mathbb R)\) of \(\text{SL}(2, \mathbb R)\), the first leafwise cohomology group \(H^1 (\mathcal{F})\) of the foliation \(\mathcal {F}\) induced on \(\Gamma \setminus \widetilde{\text{SL}}(2, \mathbb R) = M\) by the action of the solvable group of upper triangular matrices equals \(\mathbb R \oplus H^1 (M, \mathbb R)\).