We study codimension one (transversally oriented) foliations $\fa$ on oriented closed manifolds $M$ having non-empty compact singular set $\sing(\fa)$ which is locally defined by Bott-Morse functions. We prove that if the transverse type of $\fa$ at each singular point is a center and $\fa$ has a compact leaf with finite fundamental group or a component of $\sing(\fa)$ has codimension $\ge 3$ and finite fundamental group, then all leaves of $\fa$ are compact and diffeomorphic, $\sing(\fa)$ consists of two connected components, and there is a Bott-Morse function $f:M \to [0,1]$ such that $f\colon M \setminus \sing(\fa) \to (0,1)$ is a fiber bundle defining $\fa$ and $\sing(\fa) = f^{-1}(\{0,1\})$. This yields to a topological description of the type of leaves that appear in these foliations, and also the type of manifolds admiting such foliations. These results unify, and generalize, well known results for cohomogeneity one isometric actions and a theorem of Reeb for foliations with Morse singularities of center type. In this case each leaf of $\fa$ is a sphere fiber bundle over each component of $\sing(\fa)$.
In this paper we find sufficient conditions for the vanishing of the Morse-Novikov cohomology on Riemannian foliations. We work out a Bochner technique for twisted cohomological complexes, obtaining corresponding vanishing results. Also, we generalize for our setting vanishing results from the case of closed Riemannian manifolds. Several examples are presented, along with applications in the context of l.c.s. and l.c.K. foliations.
In case of the heat flow on the free loop space of a closed Riemannian manifold non-triviality of Morse homology for semi-flows is established by constructing a natural isomorphism to singular homology of the loop space. The construction is also new in finite dimensions. The main idea is to build a Morse filtration using Conley pairs and their pre-images under the time-$T$-map of the heat flow. A crucial step is to contract each Conley pair onto its part in the unstable manifold. To achieve this we construct stable foliations for Conley pairs using the recently found backward $λ$-Lemma [31]. T…
We show that a Bott-Morse foliation in dimension 3 admits a linear, singular, Poisson structure of rank 2 with Bott-Morse singularities. We provide the Poisson bivectors for each type of singular component, and compute the symplectic forms of the characteristic distribution.
We generalize a result of Giroux which says that a closed surface in a contact $3$-manifold with Morse-Smale characteristic foliation is convex. Specifically, we show that the result holds in contact manifolds of arbitrary dimension. As an application, we show that a particular closed hypersurface introduced by A. Mori is $C^{\infty}$-close to a convex hypersurface.
The idea of Lichnerowicz or Morse-Novikov cohomology groups of a manifold has been utilized by many researchers to study important properties and invariants of a manifold. Morse-Novikov cohomology is defined using the differential $d_ω=d+ω\wedge$, where $ω$ is a closed $1$-form. We study Morse-Novikov cohomology relative to a foliation on a manifold and its homotopy invariance and then extend it to more general type of forms on a Riemannian foliation. We study the Laplacian and Hodge decompositions for the corresponding differential operators on reduced leafwise Morse-Novikov complexes. In the…
We express Witten's deformation of Morse functions using deformation to the normal cone and $C^*$-modules. This allows us to obtain asymptotics of the `large eigenvalues'. Our methods extend to Morse functions along a foliation. We construct the Witten deformation using any generic function on an arbitrary foliation on a compact manifold and establish the compactness of its resolvent. When the foliation has a holonomy invariant transverse measure we show that our result implies Morse inequalities obtained by Connes and Fack in a slightly more general situation.
In the present paper, we define Morse-Bott functions on manifolds with boundary which are generalizations of Morse functions and show Morse-Bott inequalities for these manifolds.
Let $f:M \to \mathbb{R}$ be a Morse-Bott function on a compact smooth finite dimensional manifold $M$. The polynomial Morse inequalities and an explicit perturbation of $f$ defined using Morse functions $f_j$ on the critical submanifolds $C_j$ of $f$ show immediately that $MB_t(f) = P_t(M) + (1+t)R(t)$, where $MB_t(f)$ is the Morse-Bott polynomial of $f$ and $P_t(M)$ is the Poincaré polynomial of $M$. We prove that $R(t)$ is a polynomial with nonnegative integer coefficients by showing that the number of gradient flow lines of the perturbation of $f$ between two critical points $p,q \in C_j$ c…
We define the geometric complex associated to a Morse-Bott-Smale vector field, cf. [Austin-Braam, 1995], and its associated spectral sequence. We prove an extension of the Bismut-Zhang theorem to Morse-Bott-Smale functions. The proof is based on the Bismut-Zhang theorem for Morse-Smale functions, see [Bismut-Zhang, 1992].
In the Stiefel manifold $X_{n,k}$, we replace Frankel linear height function by a quadratic one. We prove this is still a Morse-Bott function, whose structure of critical levels presents a dichotomy according to the sign of $n-2k$. The critical submanifolds are no longer Grassmannians but total spaces of fibrations of basis a product of two Grassmannians. We explicitly integrate the gradient flow.
Let $\mathscr{F}$ be a singular holomorphic foliation, of codimension $k$, on a complex compact manifold such that its singular set has codimension $\geq k+1$. In this work we determinate Baum-Bott residues for $\mathscr{F}$ with respect to homogeneous symmetric polynomials of degree $k+1$. We drop the Baum-Bott's generic hypothesis and we show that the residues can be expressed in terms of the Grothendieck residue of an one-dimensional foliation on a $(k+1)$-dimensional disc transversal to a $(k+1)$-codimensional component of the singular set of $\mathscr{F}$. Also, we show that Cenkl's algor…
In the present work we generalize the construction of monopole Floer homology due to Kronheimer and Mrowka to the case of a gradient flow with Morse-Bott singularities. Focusing then on the special case of a three-manifold equipped with a spin$^c$ structure isomorphic to its conjugate, we define the counterpart in this context of Manolescu's recent $\mathrm{Pin}(2)$-equivariant Seiberg-Witten-Floer homology. In particular, we provide an alternative approach to his disproof of the celebrated Triangulation conjecture.
The transversal twistor space of a foliation F of an even codimension is the bundle ZF of the complex structures of the fibers of the transversal bundle of F. On ZF, there exists a foliation F' by covering spaces of the leaves of F, and any Bott connection of F produces an ordered pair (I,J) of transversal almost complex structures of F'. The existence of a Bott connection which yields a structure I that is projectable to the space of leaves is equivalent to the fact that F is a transversally projective foliation. A Bott connection which yields a projectable structure J exists iff F is a trans…
It is a consequence of the Morse-Bott Lemma on Banach spaces that a smooth Morse-Bott function on an open neighborhood of a critical point in a Banach space obeys a Lojasiewicz gradient inequality with the optimal exponent one half. In this article we prove converses for analytic functions on Banach spaces: If the Lojasiewicz exponent of an analytic function is equal to one half at a critical point, then the function is Morse-Bott and thus its critical set nearby is an analytic submanifold. The main ingredients in our proofs are the Lojasiewicz gradient inequality for an analytic function on a…
Let $f:M\to\mathbb{R}$ be a Morse-Bott function on a closed manifold $M$, so the set $Σ_f$ of its critical points is a closed submanifold whose connected components may have distinct dimensions. Denote by $\mathcal{S}(f) = \{h \in \mathcal{D}(M) \mid f\circ h=h \}$ the group of diffeomorphisms of $M$ preserving $f$ and let $\mathcal{D}(Σ_f)$ be the group of diffeomorphisms of $Σ_f$. We prove that the "restriction to $Σ_f$" map $ρ:\mathcal{S}(f) \to \mathcal{D}(Σ_f)$, $ρ(h) = h|_{Σ_f}$, is a locally trivial fibration over its image $ρ(\mathcal{S}(f))$.
We prove a generalisation of Bott's vanishing theorem for the full transverse frame holonomy groupoid of any transversely orientable foliated manifold. As a consequence we obtain a characteristic map encoding both primary and secondary characteristic classes. Previous descriptions of this characteristic map are formulated for the Morita equivalent étale groupoid obtained via a choice of complete transversal. By working with the full holonomy groupoid we obtain novel geometric representatives of characteristic classes. In particular we give a geometric, non-étale analogue of the codimension 1 G…
Based on Morse theory for the energy functional on path spaces we develop a deformation theory for mapping spaces of spheres into orthogonal groups. This is used to show that these mapping spaces are weakly homotopy equivalent, in a stable range, to mapping spaces associated to orthogonal Clifford representations. Given an oriented Euclidean bundle $V \to X$ of rank divisible by four over a finite complex $X$ we derive a stable decomposition result for vector bundles over the sphere bundle $\mathord{\mathbb S}( \mathbb{R} \oplus V)$ in terms of vector bundles and Clifford module bundles over $…
In this work we prove a Baum-Bott type residue theorem for flags of holomorphic foliations. We prove some relations between the residues of the flag and the residues of their correspondent foliations. We define the Nash residue for flags and we give a partial answer to the Baum-Bott type rationality conjecture in this context .
For any compact Lie group $G$ and closed, smooth Riemannian manifold $(X,g)$ of dimension $d\geq 2$, we extend a result due to Uhlenbeck (1985) that gives existence of a flat connection on a principal $G$-bundle over $X$ supporting a connection with $L^p$-small curvature, when $p>d/2$, to the case of a connection with $L^{d/2}$-small curvature. We prove an optimal Lojasiewicz-Simon gradient inequality for abstract Morse-Bott functions on Banach manifolds, generalizing an earlier result due to the author and Maridakis in arXiv:1510.03817. We apply this result to prove the optimal Lojasiewicz-Si…
We use closed geodesics to construct and compute Bott-type Morse homology groups for the energy functional on the loop space of flat $n$-dimensional tori, $n\ge 1$, and Bott-type Floer cohomology groups for their cotangent bundles equipped with the natural symplectic structure. Both objects are isomorpic to the singular homology of the loop space. In an appendix we perturb the equations in order to eliminate degeneracies and to get to a situation with nondegenerate critical points only. The (co)homology groups turn out to be invariant under the perturbation.
We prove an Atiyah-Bott-Berline-Vergne type localization formula for Killing foliations in the context of equivariant basic cohomology. As an application, we localize some Chern-Simons type invariants, for example the volume of Sasakian manifolds and secondary characteristic classes of Riemannian foliations, to the union of closed leaves. Various examples are given to illustrate our method.
Our goal in this work is to develop aspects of Bialynicki-Birula and Morse-Bott theory that can be extended from the classical setting of smooth manifolds to that of complex analytic spaces with a holomorphic $\mathbb{C}^*$ action. We extend prior results on existence of Bialynicki-Birula decompositions for compact, complex Kähler manifolds to non-compact complex manifolds and develop functorial properties of the Bialynicki-Birula decomposition, in particular with respect to blowup along a $\mathbb{C}^*$-invariant, embedded complex submanifold. We deduce the existence of a Bialynicki-Birula de…
A locally conformally Kahler (LCK) manifold is a complex manifold admitting a Kahler covering, with the monodromy acting on this covering by homotheties. We define three cohomology invariants, the Lee class, the Morse-Novikov class, and the Bott-Chern class, of an LCK-structure. These invariants together play the same role as the Kahler class in Kahler geometry. If these classes for two LCK-structures coincide, the difference between these structures can be expressed by a smooth potential, similar to the Kahler case. We show that the Morse-Novikov class and the Bott-Chern class of a Vaisman ma…
We prove several abstract versions of the Lojasiewicz-Simon gradient inequality for an analytic functional on a Banach space that generalize previous abstract versions of this inequality, weakening their hypotheses and, in particular, the well-known infinite-dimensional version of the gradient inequality due to Lojasiewicz proved by Simon (1983). We also prove that the optimal exponent of the Lojasiewicz-Simon gradient inequality is obtained when the functional is Morse-Bott, improving on similar results due to Chill (2003, 2006), Haraux and Jendoubi (2007), and Simon (1996). In our article ar…
A locally conformally Kahler (LCK) manifold is a complex manifold with a Kahler structure on its covering and the deck transform group acting on it by holomorphic homotheties. One could think of an LCK manifold as of a complex manifold with a Kahler form taking values in a local system $L$, called the conformal weight bundle. The $L$-valued cohomology of $M$ is called Morse-Novikov cohomology. It was conjectured that (just as it happens for Kahler manifolds) the Morse-Novikov complex satisfies the $dd^c$-lemma. If true, it would have far-reaching consequences for the geometry of LCK manifolds.…
In this work we prove a Baum-Bott type formula for non-compact complex manifold of the form $\tilde{X}=X- \mathcal{D}$, where $X$ is a complex compact manifold and $\mathcal{D}$ is a normal crossing divisor on $X$. As applications, we provide a Poincaré-Hopf type Theorem and an optimal description for a smooth hypersurface $\mathcal{D}$ invariant by an one-dimensional foliation $\mathscr F$ on $\mathbb{P}^n$ satisfying $Sing(\mathscr F) \subsetneq \mathcal{D}.$
Let $(M,ω)$ be a symplectic manifold endowed with a agrangian foliation ${\cal L}$, it has been shown by Weinstein [16] hat the symplectic structure of $M$ defines on each leaf of ${\cal L}$, connection which curvature and torsion forms vanish identically. uppose that $L_0$ is a compact leaf which Weinstein connection is eodesically complete, Molino and Curras-Bosch [2] have classified erms of such lagrangian foliation around $L_0$. In this paper we xtend this classification without supposing the completness of he compact leaf. The Weinstein connection is dual to the Bott onnection, this enabl…
$H$-type foliations $(\mathbb{M},\mathcal{H},g_{\mathcal{H}})$ are studied in the framework of sub-Riemannian geometry with bracket generating distribution defined as the bundle transversal to the fibers. Equipping $\mathbb{M}$ with the Bott connection we consider the scalar horizontal curvature $κ_{\mathcal{H}}$ as well as a new local invariant $τ_{\mathcal{V}}$ induced from the vertical distribution. We extend recent results on the small-time asymptotics of the sub-Riemannanian heat kernel on quaternion-contact (qc-)manifolds due to A. Laaroussi and we express the second heat invariant in su…
Motivated by the moduli theory of taut contact circles on spherical 3-manifolds, we relate taut contact circles to transversely holomorphic flows. We give an elementary survey of such 1-dimensional foliations from a topological viewpoint. We describe a complex analogue of the classical Godbillon-Vey invariant, the so-called Bott invariant, and a logarithmic monodromy of closed leaves. The Bott invariant allows us to formulate a generalised Gauß-Bonnet theorem. We compute these invariants for the Poincaré foliations on the 3-sphere and derive rigidity statements, including a uniformisation theo…
Let G be a simple Lie group of real rank one, and S the ideal boundary of the corresponding symmetric space of noncompact type (H^n_R, H^n_C, H^n_H or H^2_O). We show the finiteness of the possible values of the secondary characteristic classes of transversely homogeneous foliations on a fixed manifold whose transverse structures are modeled on the G-action on S, except the case where G=SO(n+1,1) for even n. For this exceptional case, we construct examples of foliations on a manifold which break the finiteness and show a weaker form of the finiteness. These are generalizations of a finiteness …
We generalize the Novikov inequalities for 1-forms in two different directions: first, we allow non-isolated critical points (assuming that they are non-degenerate in the sense of R.Bott), and, secondly, we strengthen the inequalities by means of twisting by an arbitrary flat bundle. The proof uses Bismut's modification of the Witten deformation of the de Rham complex; it is based on an explicit estimate on the lower part of the spectrum of the corresponding Laplacian. In particular, we obtain a new analytic proof of the degenerate Morse inequalities of Bott.
