Global symmetry-breaking bifurcations of critical orbits of invariant functionals (Q2321752)

Let \(\mathbb{H}\) be an orthogonal representation of a compact Lie group \(G\). Consider a \(G\)-invariant \(C^2\)-functional \(\Phi :\mathbb{H}\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) such that \(\{ 0\} \times \mathbb{R} \subset (\nabla_u\Phi) ^{-1}(0)\). The authors study global bifurcations of solutions of the equation \[ \nabla_u\Phi (u,\lambda)=0 \] from the trivial branch \(\{ 0\} \times \mathbb{R} \) with the isotropy group different from \(G\). The main tool is the equivariant degree for gradient maps. They prove their bifurcation results in this abstract setting and then apply it to some elliptic PDE obtaining results on global bifurcation of non-radial solutions. In this manner they show that some well-known results follow from their abstract theorem, see e.g. [\textit{M. Ramaswamy} and \textit{P. N. Srikanth}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 304, 839--845 (1987; Zbl 0644.35010)].