Free nonlinear vibrations for a class of two-dimensional plate equations: standing and discrete-rotating waves (Q4346014)

The paper concerns boundary value problems for higher order semilinear hyperbolic equations, for which the following one is typical: \[ u_{tt}+ \Delta^2u =a(\mu)u +h(\mu, x,u)\quad\text{in } \mathbb{R}\times \Omega \tag{1} \] \[ u=\Delta u=0,\quad\text{on } \mathbb{R}\times \partial \Omega, \quad u(t+P,x) =u(t,x)\quad\text{for all } (t,x)\in\mathbb{R} \times\Omega. \] In (1), \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2\) is either a square or an equilateral triangle, \(\mu\in\mathbb{R}\) is the bifurcation parameter, \(P>0\) is a fixed period, \(h(\mu,x,0)= \partial_u h(\mu,x,0)=0\) for all \((\mu,x) \in\mathbb{R} \times \Omega\), and \(\partial^2_u h(\mu,x,0)=0\) for all \((\mu,x)\in \mathbb{R}\times \partial\Omega\). The authors state sufficient conditions under which \(\mu=0\), \(u=0\) is a bifurcation point for (1) (using bifurcation theory for potential operators) and under which there bifurcate continuous branches of nontrivial solutions from the trivial one (using Lyapunov-Schmidt reduction and transversality arguments and supposing symmetry restrictions upon the nonlinearity \(h)\). In order to do so, highly nontrivial problems concerning spectral and Fredholm properties of the linearization of (1) have to be solved.