A Morse-Smale index theorem for indefinite elliptic systems and bifurcation (Q2254054)

The main purpose of the present paper is to extend the semi-Riemannian index theorem to elliptic systems of partial differential equations. The application provided in this paper concerns the qualitative study of bifurcation phenomena under shrinking of the domain. In the first part of the paper under review, the authors introduce the generalised Morse index, which is defined by means of the spectral flow for paths of Fredholm quadratic forms. The main theorems that concern the equality of these indices are stated in the next section of the paper. The authors also discuss a bifurcation property under shrinking of the domain, in relationship with the non-vanishing of the indices for the linearized equations. The two appendices deal with the definition of the spectral flow for paths of selfadjoint Fredholm operators and crossing forms, respectively with some basic properties of the Fredholm Lagrangian Grassmannian of symplectic Hilbert spaces and the Maslov index.