Morse theory on Branach space and its applications to partial differential equations (Q790497)

The purpose of this nice paper is to modify te definition of \textit{A. Tromba} [J. Differ. Geom. 12, 47-85 (1977; Zbl 0344.58012)] of the nondegeneracy of a critical point of a \(C^ 2\) function defined on a Banach space X to be more applicable to problems of partial differential equations. The author defines a critical point \(x_ 0\) of a \(C^ 2\) function f to be s-nondegenerate if (1) it is isolated; (2) there exists an hyperbolic operator \(L=L_{x_ 0}:\) \(X\to X\) and a neighborhood U of \(x_ 0\) such that \[ (i)\quad d^ 2f(x_ 0)(Lx,y)=d^ 2f(x_ 0)(x,Ly),\quad for\quad all\quad x,y\in X \] \[ (ii)\quad d^ 2f(x_ 0)(Lx,x)>0,\quad for\quad all\quad x\in X\backslash \{0\} \] \[ (iii)\quad d\prec f(x),\quad L(x-x_ 0)\succ>0,\quad for\quad all\quad x\in f_ cn(U\backslash \{x_ 0\} \] where \(c=f(x_ 0)\). It is easy to note that a B-nondegenerate critical point (in the sense of A. Tromba) is an s-nondegenerate critical point, and a weakly nondegenerate critical point (in the sense of K. Uhlenbeck) satisfies all conditions of an s- nondegenerate critical point except (i). The author remarks that in \textit{K. Uhlenbeck} [J. Funct. Anal. 10, 430-445 (1972; Zbl 0241.58002)] the proof ot the Morse theory is not complete and that the condition (i) is needed. By the use of the Morse inequalities that have been obtained in this paper some extensions of some classical results can be obtained. As an application the author proves that the following problem \[ c\sum^{n}_{i=1}(\partial /\partial x_ i)(| \partial u/\partial x_ i|^{p-2}\partial u/\partial x_ i)+\Delta u=g(u)\quad in\quad \Omega \subset R^ n,\quad u|_{\partial \Omega}=0 \] has at least three solutions, under certain assumptions on the function g where \(c>0,p\geq 2\).