The index of a critical point for nonlinear elliptic operators with strong coefficient growth (Q1975894)

Nonlinear operators with strong coefficient growth associated with boundary value problems of the type \[ \sum_{|\alpha|} D^{\alpha} \{ \rho^{2}(u) D^{\alpha} u +a_{\alpha}(x, D^{1}u)\} =\lambda a_{0}(x,u,D^{1} u),\;x \in \Omega; u(x)=0,x\in \partial \Omega \] (\(\Omega\subset R^{n} \) is bounded domain with \(\partial\Omega\in C^{2}, \rho:R\rightarrow R_{+}\) can have exponential growth) are considered. The authors give an index formula for such densely defined operators acting from Sobolev spase \(W^{1,m}_{0}(\Omega)\) into its dual. This formula is very important for various nonlinear problems containing such kind operators. An abstract variant (to operators of \(S_{+}\)-type) is suggested with applications to the relevant bifurcation problems.