Continuity of the first eigenvalue for a family of degenerate eigenvalue problems (Q2520700)

On a bounded, smooth domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N\), \(N\geq 2\), containing zero, the authors consider the degenerate elliptic eigenvalue problem \[ \begin{aligned} - \text{div} (|x|^\alpha \nabla u) & = \lambda u \text{ in }\Omega, \\ u & = 0 \text{ on }\partial \Omega, \end{aligned} \] with \(\alpha \in [0, 2)\). With the help of the concept of \(\Gamma\)-convergence they show that the smallest eigenvalue \(\lambda_1 (\alpha)\) of this problem depends continuously on \(\alpha\).