Multiple solutions for some semilinear elliptic equations (Q1080065)

For the semilinear elliptic equation \[ (1)\quad \Delta u+f(u)=h\quad on\quad \Omega \subset R^ n \] we seek solutions under Dirichlet boundary conditions. We shall require that the function f has linear growth at infinity. In this case, as it is well known, the problem may admit multiple solutions. Indeed much work has been devoted to relating the number of solutions of (1) (under Dirichlet boundary conditions) with the number of times the values of f' crosses the spectrum of -\(\Delta\). Here we describe some multiplicity results adopting a slightly different point of view. In fact we shall make use of both local (at the origin) and global assumptions of f. Hence we study the corresponding local and global behavior of Fredholm map F\(=\Delta +f\) acting between the appropriate spaces. The local behavior of F will be described in a rather precise way by means of singularity theory. While the global information on F will be obtained by computing its Smale degree (modulo 2). Thus comparing the local with the global properties of F, new multiplicity results are obtained for ''small'' data h.