TITLE: Is every singular foliation induced by a Lie algebroid?
QUESTION [16 upvotes]: Let $M$ be a smooth manifold.
A smooth distribution $D$ on $M$ is the union of a family $\{D_p \leq T_p M : p\in M\}$ of vector spaces such that there is a family $\mathcal C $ of smooth vector fields on $M$ satisfying $D_p = \text{span}\{X_p : X\in \mathcal C \} $ for every $p \in M$.
Remark that we do not ask the dimension of the fiber $D_p $ to be constant: we call a distribution regular if the dimension is constant, and singular if it is not.
We call a distribution $D$ integrable if for every point $p \in M$ there is a submanifold $S\subseteq M$ which is tangent to $D$ and satisfies $T_q S = D_q $ for every $q \in S$. In this case, it can be proved that the maximal connected integral manifolds of the distribution form a partition of $M$ into weakly embedded submanifolds of $M$, which we call the foliation associated to $D$.
Typical examples of integrable distributions are given by Lie algebroids: if $A\to M$ is a Lie algebroid over $M$ with anchor map $\rho : A\to TM$, then the image of $\rho $ is an integrable distribution on $M$. For example, every Poisson manifold has an integrable, possibly singular distribution given by the image of the Poisson bivector field $\Pi : T^*M\to TM $, and the induced foliation is precisely the symplectic foliation of the Poisson manifold.
The integrability problem for regular distributions is solved by the Frobenious theorem: a regular distribution $D$ is integrable if and only if it's involutive. A singular version of the Frobenious theorem can be stated in the following way: a (possibly singular) distribution $D$ is integrable if and only if there is a family of vector fields $\mathcal C$ which span $D$ pointwise, such that the flow of every element of $\mathcal C$ preserves $D$ (see Theorem 3.5.10 of this book for a more precise statement and a proof).
A sufficient condition for the integrability of a singular distribution $D$ is the following: there exists a module $\mathcal C$ of compactly supported vector fields spanning $D$ which is locally finitely generated and involutive. Some people calls such an object a Stefan-Sussman foliation.
I have two related questions:
1) Is it true that every integrable distribution is spanned by a module $\mathcal C$ of compactly supported vector fields which is locally finitely generated and involutive?
2) Is it true that every integrable distribution is the image of the anchor map of some Lie algebroid?
Clearly, (2) implies (1). There is people which believe that (2) is true, and I would like to know if this question is still open.
Thank you!

REPLY [5 votes]: For Stefan-Sussmann singular foliations, the answer is negative: See Prop. 1.3 in the following paper, for the construction of an explicit counterexample:
http://users.uoa.gr/~iandroul/AZsmooth_08DEc2011.pdf
Second, regarding the holonomy groupoid of a singular foliation: In fact, it turns out that it is a diffeological space, so one can do differential geometry with it. In particular, one can differentiate it in the sense of diffeological spaces (but this can be done explicitely) and obtain a Lie algebroid in a generalized sense. This Lie algebroid is nothing else than the original module $\cF$ of vector fields which defined the foliation in hand.
Of course this module $\cF$ will not be projective, unless the foliation is "almost regular" (this is the case studied by Debord). So the Serre-Swan theorem does not apply in general, which means that $\cF$ cannot be realized as the module of sections of some honest vector bundle. However, there does exist a "singular" bundle around -- its fiber at a point $x$ is the quotient of $\cF$ by the maximal ideal at x...