Transversality and Lefschetz numbers for foliation maps (Q948485)

Let \({\mathcal F}\) be a smooth foliation of codimension \(q\) on a closed Riemannian manifold \(M\) and let \(\Lambda\) be a transverse invariant measure of \({\mathcal F}\). Let \(\varphi: (M,{\mathcal F})\to (M,{\mathcal F})\) be a leaf preserving diffeomorphism. Heitsch and Lazarov defined an analytic version of Lefschetz number for \(\phi\). They also proved a Lefschetz trace formula in the case when \(\text{Fix}(\varphi)\) is a regular submanifold transverse to \({\mathcal F}\). Assume that \(\dim\text{Fix}(\varphi)=q\). Thus \(\text{Fix}(\varphi)\) is a closed transversal of \({\mathcal F}\). Then the Lefschetz trace formula is \[ L_{\Lambda,\text{an}}(\varphi)= \int_{\text{Fix}(\varphi)} \varepsilon_\varphi\Lambda ,\tag{1} \] where \(\varepsilon_\varphi: \text{Fix} (\varphi)\to\{\pm 1\}\) is the locally constant function defined by \[ \varepsilon_{\varphi}(x)= \text{sign}\det(\text{id}-\varphi_{\ast}:T_x{\mathcal F}\to t_x{\mathcal F}) . \] The right hand side of (1) can be called the topological \(\Lambda\)-Lefschetz number of \(\varphi\) and denoted by \(L_{\Lambda ,\text{top}}(\varphi)\). Thus (1) becomes \[ L_{\Lambda,\text{an}}(\varphi)= L_{\Lambda,\text{top}}(\varphi) .\tag{2} \] The authors of the present paper give some steps towards a generalization of (2) by relaxing the transversality condition on \(\text{Fix}(\varphi)\). The motivation is that the existence of a closed transversal is a strong restriction on \({\mathcal F}\). The authors assume that \(\Lambda\) is absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure on smooth transversals.