Abstract
We study the bifurcation of radially symmetric solutions of Δ+f(u)=0 onn-balls, into asymmetric ones. We show that ifu satisfies homogeneous Neumann boundary conditions, the asymmetric components in the kernel of the linearized operators can have arbitrarily high dimension. For general boundary conditions, we prove some theorems which give bounds on the dimensions of the set of asymmetric solutions, and on the structure of the kernels of the linearized operators.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agmon, S.: Lectures on elliptic boundary value problems. Princeton: Van Nostrand 1965
Berger, M., Gauduchon, P., Mazet, E.: Le spectre d'une variété Riemannienne. In: Lecture Notes in Mathematics, Vol. 194. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer 1971
Dancer, E.N.: On non-radially symmetric bifurcation. J. Lond. Math. Soc.20, 287–292 (1979)
Gidas, B., Ni, W.M., Nirenberg, L.: Symmetry of positive solutions of nonlinear elliptic equations inR n. Commun. Math. Phys.68, 202–243 (1979)
Helgason, S.: Topics in harmonic analysis on homogeneous spaces. Boston: Birkhäuser 1981
Smoller, J., Wasserman, A.: Global bifurcation of steady-state solutions. J. Differ. Equations39, 269–290 (1981)
Smoller, J., Wasserman, A.: Existence, uniqueness, and non-degeneracy of positive solutions of semilinear elliptic equations. Commun. Math. Phys.95, 129–159 (1984)
Smoller, J., Wasserman, A.: Symmetry-breaking for positive solutions of semilinear elliptic equations. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. (to appear)
Smoller, J., Wasserman, A.: An existence theorem for positive solutions of semilinear elliptic equations. Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. (to appear)
Smoller, J.: Shock waves and reaction-diffusion equations. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo: Springer 1983
Vanderbauwhede, A.: Local bifurcation and symmetry. Research Notes in Mathematics, No. 75. Boston: Pitman 1982
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by L. Nirenberg
Research supported in part by the NSF under Grant No. MCS-800 2337
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smoller, J.A., Wasserman, A.G. Symmetry-breaking for solutions of semilinear elliptic equations with general boundary conditions. Commun.Math. Phys. 105, 415–441 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01205935
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01205935