Blowing-up properties of the positive principal eigenvalue for indefinite Robin-type boundary conditions (Q976563)

In a bounded domain \(\Omega\subset\mathbb R^N\), \(N\geq1\) with smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega\), the Robin-type eigenvalue problem with indefinite weights \[ -\sum_{j=1}^N \frac{\partial^2\varphi}{\partial x_j^2}= \lambda g(x)\varphi \quad\text{in }\Omega,\qquad \frac{\partial\varphi}{\partial\mathbf{n}}= \lambda h(x)\varphi\quad\text{on }\partial\Omega \] is considered, where \(g\in L^{\infty}(\Omega)\), \(h\in W^{1-(\frac{1}{p}),p}(\partial\Omega)\), \(p>1,\) \(\mathbf{n}\) is the unit outer normal to \(\partial\Omega\). It is supposed that \(g>0\) on a set of positive measure, or \(h(x_{0})>0\) for some \(x_{0}\in\partial\Omega\). Using the variational characterization of the positive principal eigenvalue, the author finds necessary and sufficient conditions for the positive principal eigenvalue to blow up to infinity. Applications to population dynamics are given.