Localization of Basic Characteristic Classes

Abstract

We introduce basic characteristic classes and numbers as new invariants for Riemannian foliations. If the ambient Riemannian manifold M is simply connected (or more generally if the foliation is a transversely orientable Killing foliation), if M is complete and if the space of leaf closures is compact, then the basic characteristic numbers are determined by the infinitesimal dynamical behavior of the foliation at the union of its closed leaves. In fact, they can be computed with an Atiyah-Bott-Berline-Vergne-type integration formula for equivariant basic cohomology.