In this work, we study foliations of arbitrary codimension $\mathfrak{F}$ with integrable normal bundles on complete Riemannian manifolds. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for $\mathfrak{F}$ to be totally geodesic. For this, we introduce a special number $\mathfrak{G}_{\mathfrak{F}}^{\alpha}$ that measures when the foliation ceases to be totally geodesic. Furthermore, applying some maximum principle we deduce geometric properties for $\mathfrak{F}$ . We conclude with a geometrical version of Novikov’s theorem (Trans. Moscow Math. Soc. (1965), 268–304), for Riemannian compact manifolds of arbitrary dimension.

Paraconformal or GL(2, ℝ) geometry on an n-dimensional manifold M is defined by a field of rational normal curves of degree n – 1 in the projectivised cotangent bundle ℙT*M. Such geometry is known to arise on solution spaces of ODEs with vanishing Wünschmann (Doubrov–Wilczynski) invariants. In this paper we discuss yet another natural source of GL(2, ℝ) structures, namely dispersionless integrable hierarchies of PDEs such as the dispersionless Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (dKP) hierarchy. In the latter context, GL(2, ℝ) structures coincide with the characteristic variety (principal symbol) of the hierarchy.

Dispersionless hierarchies provide explicit examples of particularly interesting classes of involutive GL(2, ℝ) structures studied in the literature. Thus, we obtain torsion-free GL(2, ℝ) structures of Bryant [5] that appeared in the context of exotic holonomy in dimension four, as well as totally geodesic GL(2, ℝ) structures of Krynski [33]. The latter possess a compatible affine connection (with torsion) and a two-parameter family of totally geodesic α-manifolds (coming from the dispersionless Lax equations), which makes them a natural generalisation of the Einstein–Weyl geometry.

Our main result states that involutive GL(2, ℝ) structures are governed by a dispersionless integrable system whose general local solution depends on 2n – 4 arbitrary functions of 3 variables. This establishes integrability of the system of Wünschmann conditions.

We classify up to automorphisms all left-invariant non-Einstein solutions to the Einstein–Maxwell equations on four-dimensional Lie algebras.

We propose a differential-geometric classification of the four-component hyperbolic systems of conservation laws which satisfy the following properties: (a) they do not possess Riemann invariants; (b) they are linearly degenerate; (c) their rarefaction curves are rectilinear; (d) the cross-ratio of the four characteristic speeds is harmonic. This turns out to provide a classification of projective congruences in ${\mathbb P}^5$ whose developable surfaces are planar pencils of lines, each of these lines cutting the focal variety at points forming a harmonic quadruplet. Symmetry properties and the connection of these congruences to Cartan's isoparametric hypersurfaces are discussed.