Novikov's theorem in higher dimensions?

Abstract

Novikov's theorem is a rigidity result on the class of taut foliations on three-manifolds. For higher dimensional manifolds, foliations with a strong symplectic form have been suggested as the class of foliations having similar rigidity properties to taut foliations on three-manifolds. This leads to the natural question of whether strong symplectic foliations satisfy an analogue of Novikov's theorem. In this paper, we construct a five-dimensional manifold with a smooth foliation and a strong symplectic form that does not satisfy the expected analogue of Novikov's theorem. Our example is a foliated Lefschetz fibration.

13 pages, 5 figures