On bifurcation for semilinear elliptic Dirichlet problems on geodesic balls (Q2338858)

Let \(V:M\times \mathbb{R}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) be a \(C^1\) function such that \(V(p,0)=0\) for all \(p\in M\). Fix a \(p_0\in M\), and assume that the unit ball \(B(0,1)\subset T_{p_0}M\) is contained in the maximal domain on which \(\exp_{p_0}\) at \(p_0\) is an embedding. Let \(B(p_0,r):= \exp_{p_0}(B(0,r))\) express the geodesic ball of radius \(r\in (0,1]\) around \(p_0\). Consider the Dirchlet boundary value problems both for \[ -\Delta u(p)+V(p,u(p))=0,\quad p\in B(p_0,r),\eqno(1) \] and its linearized equation \[ -\Delta u(p)+f(p)u(p)=0,\quad p\in B(p_0,r).\eqno(2) \] It is shown, that the bifurcation radii of the BVP (1) are precisely the conjugate radii of the BVP (2). In the proof of their main theorem, the authors obtain in addition a special case of an index theorem due to S. Smale.