Taut foliations leafwise branch cover the 2-sphere

Abstract: A co-oriented foliation of an oriented 3-manifold is taut if and only if there is a map from the 3-manifold to the 2-sphere which is a branched cover when restricted to each leaf. I shall give two proofs of this theorem and explain its relation to theorems of Ghys and Donaldson.

Mathematics

Audience: researchers in the topic

Regensburg low-dimensional geometry and topology seminar