A-foliations of codimension two on compact simply-connected manifolds (Q6165548)

The author investigates singular Riemannian foliations of codimension two on compact simply connected Riemannian manifolds. The focus is on the so-called \(A\)-foliations, i.e., singular Riemannian foliations with closed aspherical leaves (see [\textit{F. Galaz-Garcia} and \textit{M. Radeschi}, J. Topol. 8, No. 3, 603--620 (2015; Zbl 1331.53059)]). It is proved that, up to foliated diffeomorphisms, every \(A\)-foliation of codimension two on a compact simply connected Riemannian \(n\)-manifold, with \(n\geq 3\), is homogeneous, i.e., the leaves are given by the orbits of a smooth Lie group action. This extends previous results in the codimension-one case by \textit{F. Galaz-Garcia} and \textit{M. Radeschi} [J. Topol. 8, No. 3, 603--620 (2015; Zbl 1331.53059)], and settles in the negative a question on the existence of non-trivial examples of singular Riemannian foliations whose leaves are exotic tori in the codimension-two, simply connected case. The homeomorphism type of the leaves of an \(A\)-foliation is worked out. In particular, when the dimension of a fixed leaf is not four, the leaf is shown to be homeomophic to a Bieberbach manifold. Based on this result, the author proposes a new definition of \(B\)-foliations -- any \(A\)-foliation without four-dimensional leaves. In order to classify compact manifolds admitting a smooth effective compact Lie group action, one can compare the orbit spaces. Inspired by this idea, the author proves that if the leaf spaces of two compact simply connected Riemannian manifolds with singular \(A\)-foliations of codimension two are isomomorphic, then the two manifolds are foliated isomorphic.