A reduction method for semilinear elliptic equations and solutions concentrating on spheres

We show that any general semilinear elliptic problem with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions in an annulus A⊆R^2m$A\subseteq {\mathbb{R}}^{2m}$, m?2$m?2$, invariant by the action of a certain symmetry group can be reduced to a nonhomogeneous similar problem in an annulus D⊂R^m+1$D\subset {\mathbb{R}}^{m+1}$, invariant by another related symmetry. We apply this result to prove the existence of positive and sign changing solutions of a singularly perturbed elliptic problem in A   which concentrate on one or two (m−1)$(m-1)$ dimensional spheres. We also prove that the Morse indices of these solutions tend to infinity as the parameter of concentration tends to infinity.