Volume-preserving great circle flows on the 3-sphere (Q5956156)

Great circles on~\(S^3\) correspond to points on the Grassmannian~\(G_2\mathbb R^4\) of oriented two-planes in~\(\mathbb R^4\), which is diffeomorphic to~\(S^2\times S^2\). It is a theorem of the first author and \textit{F. Warner} [Duke Math. J. 50, 107-132 (1983; Zbl 0523.55020)] which was independently obtained by \textit{A. Reznikov} [Funct. Anal. Appl. 19, 156-157 (1985; Zbl 0588.53036)], that a foliation of an open subset of~\(S^3\) by great circles corresponds to the graph of a distance-decreasing map~\(f\) from an open set of either factor of~\(S^2\times S^2\) to the other. The authors prove that the unit speed flow along such a foliation is volume preserving iff the map~\(f\) above is holomorphic. In particular, the only such foliations of the whole~\(S^3\) are the Hopf fibrations, which correspond to the constant maps.