Reeb foliation

Template:Inline In mathematics, the Reeb foliation is a particular foliation of the 3-sphere, introduced by the French mathematician Georges Reeb (1920–1993).

It is based on dividing the sphere into two solid tori, along a 2-torus: see Clifford torus. Each of the solid tori is then foliated internally, in codimension 1, and the dividing torus surface forms one more leaf.

By Novikov's compact leaf theorem, every smooth foliation of the 3-sphere includes a compact torus leaf, bounding a solid torus foliated in the same way.

Illustrations

File:Reebfoliation-ring-2d-2.svg 2-dimensional section of Reeb foliation

File:Reeb foliation half-torus POV-Ray.png 3-dimensional model of Reeb foliation