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We prove that if a compact, simply connected Riemannian $G$-manifold $M$ has orbit space $M/G$ isometric to some other quotient $N/H$ with $N$ having zero topological entropy, then $M$ is rationally elliptic. This result, which generalizes most conditions on rational ellipticity, is a particular case of a more general result involving manifold submetries.

We prove a version of Weyl's Law for the basic spectrum of a closed singular Riemannian foliation $(M,\mathcal{F})$ with basic mean curvature. In the special case of $M=\mathbb{S}^n$, this gives an explicit formula for the volume of the leaf space $\mathbb{S}^n/\mathcal{F}$ in terms of the algebra of basic polynomials. In particular, $\operatorname{Vol}(\mathbb{S}^n/\mathcal{F})$ is a rational multiple of $\operatorname{Vol}(\mathbb{S}^m)$, where $m=\dim (\mathbb{S}^n/\mathcal{F})$., Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure

In this paper, we establish a number of results about the topology of the leaves of a closed singular Riemannian foliation $(M,\fol)$. If $M$ is simply connected, we prove that the leaves are finitely covered by nilpotent spaces, and characterize the fundamental group of the generic leaves. If $M$ has virtually nilpotent fundamental group, we prove that the leaves have virtually nilpotent fundamental group as well., Comment: License changed

On the one hand, we provide the first examples of arbitrarily highly connected (compact) bad orbifolds. On the other hand, we show that n-connected n-orbifolds are manifolds. The latter improves the best previously known bound of Lytchak by roughly a factor of 2. For compact orbifolds and in most dimensions we prove slightly better bounds. We obtain sharp results up to dimension 5.

We show Laplacian algebras are maximal, and give applications to the Classical Invariant Theory of real orthogonal representations of compact groups, including: The solution of the Inverse Invariant Theory problem for finite groups. An if-and-only-if criterion for when a separating set is a generating set. And the introduction of a class of generalized polarizations which, in a certain class of representations (including all representations of finite groups), always generates the algebra of invariants of their diagonal representations., Comment: 19 pages; Title, abstract, and order of results in the Introduction changed in order to emphasize the main result (maximality of Laplacian algebras); other small changes in exposition in various places; no changes in the actual results. Version accepted for publication by AMPA

We consider convex contact spheres $Y$ all of whose Reeb orbits are closed. Any such $Y$ admits a stratification by the periods of closed Reeb orbits. We show that $Y$ "resembles" a contact ellipsoid: any stratum of $Y$ is an integral homology sphere, and the sequence of Ekeland-Hofer spectral invariants of $Y$ coincides with the full sequence of action values, each one repeated according to its multiplicity., Comment: 29 pages; final version: we added a reference to Ustilovsky's construction of exotic Besse contact spheres. To appear in Trans. Amer. Math. Soc

In this paper, we study polar foliations on simply connected symmetric spaces with non-negative curvature. We will prove that all such foliations are isoparametric as defined by Heintze, Liu and Olmos. We will also prove a splitting theorem which reduces the study of such foliations to polar foliations in compact simply connected symmetric spaces. Moreover, we will show that solutions to mean curvature flow of regular leaves in such foliations are always ancient solutions. This generalizes part of the results of Liu and Terng for the mean curvature flow of isoparametric submanifolds in spheres., Comment: 20 pages. Major changes throughout, following suggestions and remarks. Appendix removed, the result proved there was recently proved by Silva and Speranca. Added assumption of compact leaves on theorem 1.2. Generalized old theorem 1.3 to more general ambient spaces

Manifold submetries of the round sphere are a class of partitions of the round sphere that generalizes both singular Riemannian foliations, and the orbit decompositions by the orthogonal representations of compact groups. We exhibit a one-to-one correspondence between such manifold submetries and maximal Laplacian algebras, thus solving the Inverse Invariant Theory problem for this class of partitions. Moreover, a solution to the analogous problem is provided for two smaller classes, namely orthogonal representations of finite groups, and transnormal systems with closed leaves., Comment: 33 pages. Final version. To appear in GAFA

Manifolds all of whose geodesics are closed have been studied a lot, but there are only few examples known. The situation is different if one allows in addition for orbifold singularities. We show, nevertheless, that the abundance of new examples is restricted to even dimensions. As one key ingredient we provide a characterization of orientable manifolds among orientable orbifolds in terms of characteristic classes., Comment: 30 pages. Comments are welcome!

We find many examples of compact Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$ whose closed minimal hypersurfaces satisfy a lower bound on their index that is linear in their first Betti number. Moreover, we show that these bounds remain valid when the metric $g$ is replaced with $g'$ in a neighbourhood of $g$. Our examples $(M,g)$ consist of certain minimal isoparametric hypersurfaces of spheres; their focal manifolds; the Lie groups $SU(n)$ for $n\leq 17$, and $Sp(n)$ for all $n$; and all quaternionic Grassmannians., Comment: 22 pages

We define virtual immersions, as a generalization of isometric immersions in a pseudo-Riemannian vector space. We show that virtual immersions possess a second fundamental form, which is in general not symmetric. We prove that a manifold admits a virtual immersion with skew symmetric second fundamental form, if and only if it is a symmetric space, and in this case the virtual immersion is essentially unique., Comment: 11 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1708.05881

We show that closed, immersed, minimal hypersurfaces in a compact symmetric space satisfy a lower bound on the index plus nullity, which depends linearly on their first Betti number. Moreover, if either the minimal hypersurface satisfies a certain genericity condition, or if the ambient space is a product of two CROSSes, we improve this to a lower bound on the index alone, which is affine in the first Betti number. To prove these, we introduce a generalization of isometric immersions in Euclidean space. Compact symmetric spaces admit (and in fact are characterized by) such a structure with skew-symmetric second fundamental form., Comment: Version accepted for publication in Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations

In this note we consider submersions from compact manifolds, homotopy equivalent to the Eschenburg or Bazaikin spaces of positive curvature. We show that if the submersion is nontrivial, the dimension of the base is greater than the dimension of the fiber. Together with previous results, this proves the Petersen-Wilhelm Conjecture for all the known compact manifolds with positive curvature., Comment: 11 pages

We present a new link between the Invariant Theory of infinitesimal singular Riemannian foliations and Jordan algebras. This, together with an inhomogeneous version of Weyl's First Fundamental Theorems, provides a characterization of the recently discovered Clifford foliations in terms of basic polynomials. This link also yields new structural results about infinitesimal foliations, such as the existence of non-trivial symmetries.

In this paper we prove the conjecture of Molino that for every singular Riemannian foliation $(M,\mathcal{F})$, the partition $\bar{\mathcal{F}}$ given by the closures of the leaves of $\mathcal{F}$ is again a singular Riemannian foliation., Comment: 15 pages - Minor changes in the introduction. Example 1.1 added

An upper bound is obtained on the rank of a torus which can act smoothly and effectively on a smooth, closed, simply connected, rationally elliptic manifold. In the maximal-rank case, the manifolds admitting such actions are classified up to equivariant rational homotopy type., Comment: 29 pages; Final version. To appear in Math. Z

A conjecture of Berger states that, for any simply connected Riemannian manifold all of whose geodesics are closed, all prime geodesics have the same length. We firstly show that the energy function on the free loop space of such a manifold is a perfect Morse-Bott function with respect to a suitable cohomology. Secondly we explain when the negative bundles along the critical manifolds are orientable. These two general results then lead to a solution of Berger's conjecture when the underlying manifold is a sphere of dimension at least four., Comment: 39 pages

We prove a Slice Theorem around closed leaves in a singular Riemannian foliation, and we use it to study the $C^\infty$-algebra of smooth basic functions, generalizing to the inhomogeneous setting a number of results by G.~Schwarz. In particular, in the infinitesimal case we show that this algebra is generated by a finite number of polynomials., Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure. Manuscript modified to put an emphasis on the slice theorem. Title changed accordingly. Preliminary section on singular Riemannian foliations added. Proof of Theorem A greatly simpllified. To appear in Transactions of the AMS

We prove that singular Riemannian foliations in Euclidean spheres can be defined by polynomial equations., Comment: 9 pages

We complete the classification, initiated by the second named author, of homogeneous singular Riemannian foliations of spheres that are lifts of foliations produced from Clifford systems.

Given a singular Riemannian foliation on a compact Riemannian manifold, we study the mean curvature flow equation with a regular leaf as initial datum. We prove that if the leaves are compact and the mean curvature vector field is basic, then any finite time singularity is a singular leaf, and the singularity is of type I. These results generalize previous results of Liu and Terng, Pacini and Koike. In particular our results can be applied to partitions of Riemannian manifolds into orbits of actions of compact groups of isometries., Comment: 15 pages. Exposition improved

In this work, it is shown that a simply-connected, rationally-elliptic torus orbifold is equivariantly rationally homotopy equivalent to the quotient of a product of spheres by an almost-free, linear torus action, where this torus has rank equal to the number of odd-dimensional spherical factors in the product. As an application, simply-connected, rationally-elliptic manifolds admitting slice-maximal torus actions are classified up to equivariant rational homotopy. The case where the rational-ellipticity hypothesis is replaced by non-negative curvature is also discussed, and the Bott Conjecture in the presence of a slice-maximal torus action is proved., Comment: A gap in the first version has been fixed and the paper has been substantially expanded. Several new results have been added. The title and abstract have been changed accordingly. 36 pages, 1 figure

Using representations of Clifford algebras we construct indecomposable singular Riemannian foliations on round spheres, most of which are non-homogeneous. This generalizes the construction of non-homogeneous isoparametric hypersurfaces due to by Ferus, Karcher and Munzner., Comment: 21 pages. Construction of foliations in the Cayley plane added. Proofs simplified and presentation improved, according to referee's suggestions. To appear in Geom. Funct. Anal

In this paper, we first prove that any closed simply connected 4-manifold that admits a decomposition into two disk bundles of rank greater than 1 is diffeomorphic to one of the standard elliptic 4-manifolds: $\mathbb{S}^4$, $\mathbb{CP}^2$, $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^2$, or $\mathbb{CP}^2\#\pm \mathbb{CP}^2$. As an application we prove that any closed simply connected 4-manifold admitting a nontrivial singular Riemannian foliation is diffeomorphic to a connected sum of copies of standard $\mathbb{S}^4$, $\pm\mathbb{CP}^2$ and $\mathbb{S}^2\times\mathbb{S}^2$. A classification of singular Riemannian foliations of codimension 1 on all closed simply connected 4-manifolds is obtained as a byproduct. In particular, there are exactly 3 non-homogeneous singular Riemannian foliations of codimension 1, complementing the list of cohomogeneity one 4-manifolds., Comment: 24 pages, final version, to appear in Math. Ann

We determine the structure of the fundamental group of the regular leaves of a closed singular Riemannian foliation on a compact, simply connected Riemannian manifold. We also study closed singular Riemannian foliations whose leaves are homeomorphic to aspherical or to Bieberbach manifolds. These foliations, which we call A-foliations and B-foliations, respectively, generalize isometric torus actions on Riemannian manifolds. We apply our results to the classification problem of compact, simply connected Riemannian 4- and 5-manifolds with positive or nonnegative sectional curvature., Comment: 23 pages, 1 figure. Final version. Accepted for publication by the Journal of Topology

We prove here that given a proper isometric action $K\times M\to M$ on a complete Riemannian manifold $M$ then every continuous isometric flow on the orbit space $M/K$ is smooth, i.e., it is the projection of an $K$-equivariant smooth flow on the manifold $M$. As a direct corollary we infer the smoothness of isometric actions on orbit spaces. Another relevant application of our result concerns Molino's conjecture, which states that the partition of a Riemannian manifold into the closures of the leaves of a singular Riemannian foliation is still a singular Riemannian foliation. We prove Molino's conjecture for the main class of foliations considered in his book, namely orbit-like foliations., Comment: We have improved the introduction, added a new subsection "quick introduction to the new tools" and a proof to the corollary

Singular Riemannian Foliations are particular types of foliations on Riemannian manifolds, in which leaves locally stay at a constant distance from each other. Singular Riemannian Foliations in round spheres play a special role, since they provide "infinitesimal information" about general Singular Riemannian Foliations. In this paper we show that Singular Riemannian Foliations in spheres, of dimension at most 3, are orbits of an isometric group action., Comment: 44 pages

In this paper we prove that an isometry between orbit spaces of two proper isometric actions is smooth if it preserves the codimension of the orbits or if the orbit spaces have no boundary. In other words, we generalize Myers-Steenrod's theorem for orbit spaces. These results are proved in the more general context of singular Riemannian foliations., Comment: Several typos were corrected. Coordinate-free proofs of the main propositions were added