Bifurcation of Fredholm maps. II: The index bundle and bifurcation (Q446229)

The author obtains an estimate on the covering dimension of the set of bifurcation points of solutions of nonlinear elliptic boundary value problems parametrized by a smooth manifold. This approach combines an extension to families of the Agranovich reduction with the index bundle of a family of pseudo-differential operators. Next, by the Atiyah-Singer family index theorem, the Chern character of the complexication is determined as an integral along the fiber of a differential form associated to the symbol of the family. In the final section of this paper, assuming that the linearization along the trivial branch is a (real) lower-order perturbation of a family of elliptic boundary value problems with complex coefficients, the author obtains sufficient conditions for bifurcation in dimensions not covered by the main theorem in the present paper. This is mainly done by means of the Stiefel-Whitney classes.