Complex Algebraic Foliations

This book is a basic reference in the modern theory of holomorphic foliations, presenting the interplay between various aspects of the theory and utilizing methods from algebraic and complex geometry along with techniques from complex dynamics and several complex variables. The result is a solid introduction to the theory of foliations, covering basic concepts through modern results on the structure of foliations on complex projective spaces.

Featuring a blend of original research papers and comprehensive surveys from an international team of leading researchers in the thriving fields of foliation theory, holomorphic foliations, and birational geometry, this book presents the proceedings of the conference "Foliation Theory in Algebraic Geometry," hosted by the Simons Foundation in New York City in September 2013. Topics covered include: Fano and del Pezzo foliations; the cone theorem and rank one foliations; the structure of symmetric differentials on a smooth complex surface and a local structure theorem for closed symmetric differentials of rank two; an overview of lifting symmetric differentials from varieties with canonical singularities and the applications to the classification of AT bundles on singular varieties; an overview of the powerful theory of the variety of minimal rational tangents introduced by Hwang and Mok; recent examples of varieties which are hyperbolic and yet the Green-Griffiths locus is the whole of X; and a classification of psuedoeffective codimension one distributions. Foliations play a fundamental role in algebraic geometry, for example in the proof of abundance for threefolds and to a solution of the Green-Griffiths conjecture for surfaces of general type with positive Segre class. The purpose of this volume is to foster communication and enable interactions between experts who work on holomorphic foliations and birational geometry, and to bring together leading researchers to demonstrate the powerful connection of ideas, methods, and goals shared by these two areas of study./div

This book is a basic reference in the modern theory of holomorphic foliations, presenting the interplay between various aspects of the theory and utilizing methods from algebraic and complex geometry along with techniques from complex dynamics and s

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.

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 main result of this original research monograph is the classification of C*-algebras of ordinary foliations of the plane in terms of a class of -trees. It reveals a close connection between some most recent developments in modern analysis and low-dimensional topology. It introduces noncommutative CW-complexes (as the global fibred products of C*-algebras), among other things, which adds a new aspect to the fast-growing field of noncommutative topology and geometry. The reader is only required to know basic functional analysis. However, some knowledge of topology and dynamical systems will be helpful. The book addresses graduate students and experts in the area of analysis, dynamical systems and topology.