This unique reference, aimed at research topologists, gives an exposition of the 'pseudo-Anosov' theory of foliations of 3-manifolds. This theory generalizes Thurston's theory of surface automorphisms and reveals an intimate connection between dynamics, geometry and topology in 3 dimensions. Significant themes returned to throughout the text include the importance of geometry, especially the hyperbolic geometry of surfaces, the importance of monotonicity, especially in1-dimensional and co-dimensional dynamics, and combinatorial approximation, using finite combinatorical objects such as train-tracks, branched surfaces and hierarchies to carry more complicated continuous objects.

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"".

This book is an introduction to several active research topics in Foliation Theory and its connections with other areas. It contains expository lectures showing the diversity of ideas and methods converging in the study of foliations. The lectures by Aziz El Kacimi Alaoui provide an introduction to Foliation Theory with emphasis on examples and transverse structures. Steven Hurder's lectures apply ideas from smooth dynamical systems to develop useful concepts in the study of foliations: limit sets and cycles for leaves, leafwise geodesic flow, transverse exponents, Pesin Theory and hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic types of foliations. The lectures by Masayuki Asaoka compute the leafwise cohomology of foliations given by actions of Lie groups, and apply it to describe deformation of those actions. In his lectures, Ken Richardson studies the properties of transverse Dirac operators for Riemannian foliations and compact Lie group actions, and explains a recently proved index formula. Besides students and researchers of Foliation Theory, this book will be interesting for mathematicians interested in the applications to foliations of subjects like Topology of Manifolds, Differential Geometry, Dynamics, Cohomology or Global Analysis.

This book is devoted to geometric problems of foliation theory, in particular those related to extrinsic geometry, modern branch of Riemannian Geometry. The concept of mixed curvature is central to the discussion, and a version of the deep problem of the Ricci curvature for the case of mixed curvature of foliations is examined. The book is divided into five chapters that deal with integral and variation formulas and curvature and dynamics of foliations. Different approaches and methods (local and global, regular and singular) in solving the problems are described using integral and variation formulas, extrinsic geometric flows, generalizations of the Ricci and scalar curvatures, pseudo-Riemannian and metric-affine geometries, and 'computable' Finsler metrics. The book presents the state of the art in geometric and analytical theory of foliations as a continuation of the authors' life-long work in extrinsic geometry. It is designed for newcomers to the field as well as experienced geometers working in Riemannian geometry, foliation theory, differential topology, and a wide range of researchers in differential equations and their applications. It may also be a useful supplement to postgraduate level work and can inspire new interesting topics to explore.

This book provides historical background and a complete overview of the qualitative theory of foliations and differential dynamical systems. Senior mathematics majors and graduate students with background in multivariate calculus, algebraic and differential topology, differential geometry, and linear algebra will find this book an accessible introduction. Upon finishing the book, readers will be prepared to take up research in this area. Readers will appreciate the book for its highly visual presentation of examples in low dimensions. The author focuses particularly on foliations with compact leaves, covering all the important basic results. Specific topics covered include: dynamical systems on the torus and the three-sphere, local and global stability theorems for foliations, the existence of compact leaves on three-spheres, and foliated cobordisms on three-spheres. Also included is a short introduction to the theory of differentiable manifolds.

The Geometric Theory of Foliations is one of the fields in Mathematics that gathers several distinct domains: Topology, Dynamical Systems, Differential Topology and Geometry, among others. Its great development has allowed a better comprehension of several phenomena of mathematical and physical nature. Our book contains material dating from the origins of the theory of foliations, from the original works of C Ehresmann and G Reeb, up till modern developments.In a suitable choice of topics we are able to cover material in a coherent way bringing the reader to the heart of recent results in the field. A number of theorems, nowadays considered to be classical, like the Reeb Stability Theorem, Haefliger's Theorem, and Novikov Compact leaf Theorem, are proved in the text. The stability theorem of Thurston and the compact leaf theorem of Plante are also thoroughly proved. Nevertheless, these notes are introductory and cover only a minor part of the basic aspects of the rich theory of foliations.

The text presents the birational classification of holomorphic foliations of surfaces. It discusses at length the theory developed by L.G. Mendes, M. McQuillan and the author to study foliations of surfaces in the spirit of the classification of complex algebraic surfaces.