Journal of Differential Geometry

Taut submanifolds and foliations

Stephan Wiesendorf

Abstract

We give an equivalent description of taut submanifolds of complete Riemannian manifolds as exactly those submanifolds whose normal exponential map has the property that every preimage of a point is a union of submanifolds. It turns out that every taut submanifold is also $\mathbb{Z}_2$-taut. We explicitly construct generalized Bott-Samelson cycles for the critical points of the energy functionals on the path spaces of a taut submanifold that, generically, represent a basis for the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-cohomology. We also consider singular Riemannian foliations all of whose leaves are taut. Using our characterization of taut submanifolds, we are able to show that tautness of a singular Riemannian foliation is actually a property of the quotient.

Article information

Source
J. Differential Geom., Volume 96, Number 3 (2014), 457-505.

Dates
First available in Project Euclid: 20 March 2014

https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.jdg/1395321847

Digital Object Identifier
doi:10.4310/jdg/1395321847

Mathematical Reviews number (MathSciNet)
MR3189462

Zentralblatt MATH identifier
1302.53032

Citation

Wiesendorf, Stephan. Taut submanifolds and foliations. J. Differential Geom. 96 (2014), no. 3, 457--505. doi:10.4310/jdg/1395321847. https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.jdg/1395321847