The dynamics of open, foliated manifolds and a vanishing theorem for the Godbillon-Vey class (Q801565)

The geometric significance of the Godbillon-Vey invariant for codimension-one foliations has been the subject of considerable interest. One of the most definitive results is that of Duminy (1982): on a closed manifold, a foliation with no resilient leaves (no leaf capturing itself by a holonomy contraction) has vanishing Godbillon-Vey class. The authors here remove the hypothesis of compactness of the manifold. They have earlier results relating growth properties of leaves and the Godbillon- Vey class, however growth properties, unlike resiliency, do not extend to open manifolds.