Conley index continuation and thin domain problems (Q5936104)

For a smooth bounded domain \(\Omega\in \mathbb R^M\times \mathbb R^N\) and for \(\varepsilon>0\) define \(\Omega_\varepsilon:=\{(x,\varepsilon y)\colon (x,y)\in\Omega\}\). The reaction-diffusion equation \(u_t=\Delta u+f(u)\) on \(\Omega_\varepsilon\), where \(f\) is a \(C^1\)-class function, together with the Neumann boundary condition \(\partial_{\nu_\varepsilon}u=0\) on \(\partial\Omega_\varepsilon\), where \(\nu_\varepsilon\) denotes the exterior normal vector field, generates a local semiflow \(\pi_\varepsilon\) on \(H^1(\Omega_\varepsilon)\). As \(\varepsilon\to 0\), the family \(\pi_\varepsilon\) determines in some natural way the limit local semiflow \(\pi_0\) on \(H^1_s(\Omega):=\{u\in H^1(\Omega)\colon \nabla_y u=0\}\). The main theorem asserts that if \(K_0\subset H^1_s(\Omega)\) is an isolated invariant set of \(\pi_0\) then there is an \(\varepsilon_0>0\) such that for each \(\varepsilon\in (0,\varepsilon_0]\) there is an isolated invariant set \(K_\varepsilon\) of \(\pi_\varepsilon\) such that the Conley indices \(h(\pi_\varepsilon,K_\varepsilon)\) and \(h(\pi_0,K_0)\) coincide. As applications, results on existence of heteroclinic connections of hyperbolic equilibria and on existence of nontrivial equilibria bifurcating from \(0\) are presented.