Complete nonsingular holomorphic foliations on Stein manifolds

Abstract

Let $X$ be a Stein manifold of complex dimension $n>1$ endowed with a Riemannian metric $\mathfrak{g}$. We show that for every integer $k$ with $\left[\frac{n}{2}\right] \le k \le n-1$ there is a nonsingular holomorphic foliation of dimension $k$ on $X$ all of whose leaves are topologically closed and $\mathfrak{g}$-complete. The same is true if $1\le k<\left[\frac{n}{2}\right]$ provided that there is a complex vector bundle epimorphism $TX\to X\times\mathbb{C}^{n-k}$. We also show that if $\mathcal{F}$ is a proper holomorphic foliation on $\mathbb{C}^n$ $(n>1)$ then for any Riemannian metric $\mathfrak{g}$ on $\mathbb{C}^n$ there is a holomorphic automorphism $\Phi$ of $\mathbb{C}^n$ such that the image foliation $\Phi_*\mathcal{F}$ is $\mathfrak{g}$-complete. The analogous result is obtained on every Stein manifold with Varolin's density property.