Resumen
In this paper we characterize the existence of principal eigenvalues for a general class of linear weighted second order elliptic boundary value problems subject to a very general class of mixed boundary conditions. Our theory is a substantial extension of the classical theory by P. Hess and T. Kato (1980, Comm. Partial Differential Equations 5, 999-1030). In obtaining our main results we must give a number of new results on the continuous dependence of the principal eigenvalue of a second order linear elliptic boundary value problem with respect to the underlying domain and the boundary condition itself. These auxiliary results complement and in some sense complete the theory of D. Daners and E. N. Dancer (1997, J. Differential Equations 138, 86-132). The main technical tool used throughout this paper is a very recent characterization of the strong maximum principle in terms of the existence of a positive strict supersolution due to H. Amann and J. López-Gómez (1998, J. Differential Equations 146, 336-374).