Bifurcations, symmetries and the notion of fixed subspace

Abstract

In the context of stationary bifurcation problems admitting a symmetry, this paper is focused on the key notion of Fixed Subspace (FS), and provides a review of some applications aimed at detecting bifurcating solutions in various situations. We start recalling, in its commonly used simplified version, the old Equivariant Bifurcation Lemma (EBL), where the FS is one-dimensional; then we provide a first generalization in a typical case of non-semisimple critical eigenvalues, where the presence of the symmetry produces a non-trivial situation. Next, we consider the case of FSs of dimension [Formula: see text] in very different contexts. First, relying on the topological index theory and in particular on the Krasnosel’skii theorem, we provide a largely applicable statement of an extension of the EBL. Second, we propose a completely different and new application which combines symmetry properties with the notion of stability of bifurcating solutions. We also provide some simple examples, constructed ad hoc to illustrate the various situations.