On the geometry of a pair of foliations and a conformal invariant (Q6589771)

The paper is devoted to the study of the geometry of two mutually orthogonal foliations, \(\mathcal F_1\) and \(\mathcal F_2\) on a Riemannian manifold \(M\). The corresponding partial Bott connections are used to define a mixed Bott connection \(\hat\nabla\) on \(TM\), which is torsion-free but not metric in general. It is the only torsion-free connection adapted to \(\mathcal F_1\) and \(\mathcal F_2\) (in the sense that its restriction to the leaves agrees with the Levi-Civita connection on the leaves). Its metrization \({}^g\hat\nabla\) is the standard connection on \(T\mathcal F_1\oplus T\mathcal F_2\). Several tensors are obtained from these connections, and their properties are studied. One of them is used to characterize \({}^g\hat\nabla\). Another tensor, defined as a measure of the lack of symmetry of the mixed Weingarten operator, is shown to be a conformal invariant.