The index of an isolated critical point for a class of non-differentiable elliptic operators in reflexive Banach spaces (Q2484534)

The problem of computing the index (i.e., the degree on a small ball) of an isolated critical point (or a zero) for a class of nonlinear operators is investigated. Using the degree theory for densely defined \((S_+)\)-type maps, being recently developed by the authors, the index formula for a non-smooth operator \(A\) defined on an open subset of a real separable reflexive Banach space with values in the dual \(X^*\) and satisfying the condition \((S_+)\) is provided. Operators satisfying those assumptions are associated with elliptic eigenvalue boundary value problems of the second-order of the form \[ \sum_{| \alpha|\leq 1}(-1)^{|\alpha|}D^\alpha a_\alpha(x,u,\nabla u)+\lambda b(x,u,\nabla u)= 0,\quad x\in\Omega,\;u|\partial\Omega=0. \] As an application of their theory, the authors establish an index formula for a non-Fréchet differentiable operator \(A\) defined on the Sobolev space \(W_0^{1,m} (\Omega)\), \(1<m<2\), into its dual. The computation of the index is of importance in many questions such as the estimation of the number of solutions, local and global bifurcation, or branching of solutions phenomena. As an illustration, the index formula is applied in order to study bifurcation problems for the above mentioned BVP.