Metric Foliations of Homogeneous Three-Spheres

Abstract

A smooth foliation of a Riemannian manifold is metric when its leaves are locally equidistant and is homogenous when its leaves are locally orbits of a Lie group acting by isometries. Homogenous foliations are metric foliations, but metric foliations need not be homogenous foliations. We prove that a homogenous three-sphere is naturally reductive if and only if all of its metric foliations are homogenous.