Symmetry-breaking bifurcation of analytic solutions to free boundary problems: An application to a model of tumor growth (Q2701672)

A system of two elliptic equations \(\Delta \sigma - \sigma =0\), \(\Delta p=-\mu(\sigma - \widetilde{\sigma})\) in a region \(\Omega\) close to a disk with a free radius supplemented with boundary conditions containing parameters to be found in the process of investigation is studied. It models the growth of tumor tissue. The main problem is to find branching points of the system when varying parameter \(\widetilde{\sigma}\) from a radial solution to non-radial ones given on a region being a small angular perurbation of a disk. The radius is a parameter which is coming along with a branching point. Non-radial solutions are sought as the expansion in a parameter \(\varepsilon\) of the deviation from the radial solution. For every \(\varepsilon^n\) they get a system to find components of the function to be determined and parameters perturbed. The components are represented as series in Bessel functions. If the form of the first order in \(\varepsilon\) deviation of the region is fixed (here \(\cos l\theta\), \(\theta\) is the angular variable), then series are convergent and the solution is unique under some orthogonality conditions. The paper contains, besides other points, several new useful properties of Bessel functions.