Symmetry-breaking at non-positive solutions of semilinear elliptic equations

We consider symmetry-breaking bifurcations at non-positive, radially symmetric solutions of semilinear elliptic equations on a ball with Dirichlet boundary conditions. For nonlinearities which are asymptotically affine linear, we find solutions at which the symmetry breaks. The kernel of the linearized equation at these solutions is an absolutely irreducible representation of the group O(n). For this kind of equation a transversality condition is satisfied if the perturbation of the affine linear problem is small enough. Thus we obtain, by the equivariant branching lemma, a large variety of isotropy subgroups of O(n) which occur as symmetries of the bifurcating solution branches.