Finiteness of the basic intersection cohomology of a Killing foliation (Q455621)

Let \(G\) be a Lie group acting isometrically on a closed Riemannian manifold \(M\). The connected components of the orbits form a singular Riemannian foliation \(\mathcal{F}\). (In a singular foliation, the dimension of leaves can vary.) This foliation is conical, meaning (recursively) that there are charts in which \(\mathcal{F}\) looks like the product of a simple foliation on a Euclidean space and the cone on a conical foliation without \(0\)-dimensional leaves on a normal sphere. A stratification of \(M\) is given by grouping two points into the same stratum if they lie in leaves of the same dimension. With respect to this stratification, one can introduce perverse differential forms that possess a perverse degree along every stratum, which controls vanishing in the normal direction. Basic cohomology is a cohomology theory for the leaf space of a foliation, which is generally very complicated. The cohomology theory is associated to a complex of so-called \textit{basic} differential forms. These are differential forms on \(M\) whose contraction, as well as the contraction of their de Rham differential, along vector fields tangent to the foliation vanishes. For the foliation determined by a submersion with connected fibers, the basic cohomology is the cohomology of the base, hence the terminology. The basic cohomology is generally infinite-dimensional, but is finite-dimensional for regular Riemannian foliations of a compact manifold. Basic intersection cohomology of \((M,\mathcal{F})\) is obtained from the complex of basic perverse differential forms whose perverse degree is bounded by a given perversity function. The authors prove that for isometric actions on a closed manifold, the basic intersection cohomology is finite-dimensional. For the proof, the authors observe that the closure of \(G\) in the isometry group of \(M\) is compact, by compactness of \(M\). For basic open covers of \(M\), there is a Mayer-Vietoris sequence. The basic intersection cohomology of twisted products is analyzed. Further tools are the stratification by isotropy types and a blow-up technique due to Molino which reduces the depth of a foliation. The finiteness for tubular neighborhoods in shown in a separate step. The proof scheme consists of an induction on the dimension of \(M\). The finite-dimensionality for basic cohomology of regular foliations of a compact manifold is used to get started in depth \(0\). The conclusion is derived using Mayer-Vietoris and five-lemma argumentation.