Bifurcation revisited along footprints of Jürgen Scheurle (Q2180354)

This paper, based on a talk given at a meeting in honor of Professor Jürgen Scheurle, surveys the work of Scheurle in the area of bifurcation from the continuous spectrum. Bifurcation concerns the behavior of solutions of a parametrized equation \(F(\lambda,u)=0\) (where \(\lambda\) is the parameter) near a known solution \((\bar{\lambda},\bar{u})\), when the linearization \(L=F'_u(\bar{\lambda},\bar{u})\) is non-invertible. While the case in which \(L\) is a Fredholm operator can be studied using reduction to a finite-dimensional problem, the case in which \(0\) is an element of the continuous spectrum of \(L\) and \(L\) is invertible with an unbounded inverse, known as `bifurcation from the continuous spectrum', presents considerable difficulties. Along with the survey of works by Jürgen Scheurle in which such problems have been dealt with, using a variety of tools, including variational methods, dynamical systems theory, and perturbation theory, the paper also contains personal reminiscences of the author's interactions with Professor Scheurle thorough the years.