On a Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for manifolds with foliated boundaries

Abstract

We prove a Hitchin-Thorpe inequality for noncompact 4-manifolds with foliated geometry at infinity by extending on previous work by Dai and Wei. After introducing the objects at hand, we recall some preliminary results regarding the $G$-signature formula and the rho invariant, which are used to obtain expressions for the signature and Euler characteristic in our geometric context. We then derive our main result, and present examples.