Geometric Theory of Foliations

Alcides Lins Neto

ISBN 10: 146847149X / ISBN 13: 9781468471496

Published by Birkhäuser Boston, Birkhäuser Jun 2013, 2013

About this Item

This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Intuitively, a foliation corresponds to a decomposition of a manifold into a union of connected, disjoint submanifolds of the same dimension, called leaves, which pile up locally like pages of a book. The theory of foliations, as it is known, began with the work of C. Ehresmann and G. Reeb, in the 1940's; however, as Reeb has himself observed, already in the last century P. Painleve saw the necessity of creating a geometric theory (of foliations) in order to better understand the problems in the study of solutions of holomorphic differential equations in the complex field. The development of the theory of foliations was however provoked by the following question about the topology of manifolds proposed by H. Hopf in the 3 1930's: 'Does there exist on the Euclidean sphere S a completely integrable vector field, that is, a field X such that X curl X - 0 ' By Frobenius' theorem, this question is equivalent to the following: 'Does there exist on the 3 sphere S a two-dimensional foliation ' This question was answered affirmatively by Reeb in his thesis, where he 3 presents an example of a foliation of S with the following characteristics: There exists one compact leaf homeomorphic to the two-dimensional torus, while the other leaves are homeomorphic to two-dimensional planes which accu mulate asymptotically on the compact leaf. Further, the foliation is C''. 216 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9781468471496

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Geometric Theory of Foliations
• Publisher: Birkhäuser Boston, Birkhäuser Jun 2013
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 146847149X
• ISBN 13: 9781468471496
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 155H x 12D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 155 millimeters height by 12 millimeters depth
• Weight: 335 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Intuitively, a foliation corresponds to a decomposition of a manifold into a union of connected, disjoint submanifolds of the same dimension, called leaves, which pile up locally like pages of a book. The theory of foliations, as it is known, began with the work of C. Ehresmann and G. Reeb, in the 1940's; however, as Reeb has himself observed, already in the last century P. Painleve saw the necessity of creating a geometric theory (of foliations) in order to better understand the problems in the study of solutions of holomorphic differential equations in the complex field. The development of the theory of foliations was however provoked by the following question about the topology of manifolds proposed by H. Hopf in the 3 1930's: "Does there exist on the Euclidean sphere S a completely integrable vector field, that is, a field X such that X· curl X • 0?" By Frobenius' theorem, this question is equivalent to the following: "Does there exist on the 3 sphere S a two-dimensional foliation?" This question was answered affirmatively by Reeb in his thesis, where he 3 presents an example of a foliation of S with the following characteristics: There exists one compact leaf homeomorphic to the two-dimensional torus, while the other leaves are homeomorphic to two-dimensional planes which accu­ mulate asymptotically on the compact leaf. Further, the foliation is C"".