The transverse geometry of \(G\)-manifolds and Riemannian foliations (Q5954282)

The author considers a compact Lie group \(G\) and a compact Riemannian \(n\)-manifold \(M\) upon which \(G\) acts by orientation-preserving isometries, and then he constructs a Riemannian \(SO(n)\)-manifold \(W\) such that the orbit space \(W/SO(n)\) is isometric as a metric space to \(M/G\). Moreover, he proves that the metric on \(W\) may be chosen so that the isometry preserves the volumes of orbits of maximal dimension (the dimensions of the corresponding orbits may be different). As the author proves, if the action of \(G\) on \(M\) is not orientation-preserving, then a similar result holds with \(SO(n)\) replaced by \(O(n)\). In order to perform the construction, the author shows that there exists a transversally-oriented, codimension \(n\), Riemannian foliation whose leaf closure space is naturally isometric to the orbit space of the group action, and the metric on the foliation may be chosen so that a leaf closure is mapped to an orbit with the same volume. On the other hand, he shows that for any transversally-oriented Riemannian foliation of codimension \(q\), there exists a metric on the \(SO(q)\)-manifold associated to the foliation, such that the leaf closure space is isometric to the orbit space of the \(SO(q)\)-manifold via an isometry that preserves the volume of the leaf closures of maximal dimension. The author discusses also some consequences of the existence of transverse isometries. The consequences concern objects such as the invariant Laplacian on a \(G\)-manifold and the basic Laplacian on the Riemannian foliation, the spectrum of the Laplacian on invariant functions on a \(G\)-manifold and the spectrum of the Laplacian restricted to invariant functions on a Riemannian \(O(q)\)-manifold, the invariant heat kernel of a \(G\)-manifold, and the spectrum of differential operators on sections of vector bundles over Riemannian foliations and \(G\)-manifolds.