Confoliations

Thisbookpresentsthefirststepsofatheoryofconfoliationsdesignedtolinkgeometryandtopologyofthree-dimensionalcontactstructureswiththegeometryandtopologyofcodimension-onefoliationsonthree-dimensionalmanifolds.Developingalmostindependently,thesetheoriesatfirstglancebelongedtotwodifferentworlds:Thetheoryoffoliationsispartoftopologyanddynamicalsystems,whilecontactgeometryistheodd-dimensional"brother"ofsymplecticgeometry.However,boththeorieshavedevelopedanumberofstrikingsimilarities.Confoliations--whichinterpolatebetweencontactstructuresandcodimension-onefoliations--shouldhelpustounderstandbetterlinksbetweenthetwotheories.Theselinksprovidetoolsfortransportingresultsfromonefieldtotheother.