Continuity of the first eigenvalue for a family of degenerate eigenvalue problems

For each \({\alpha\in0,2)}\) we consider the eigenvalue problem \({-{\rm div}(|x|^\alpha \nabla u)=\lambda u}\) in a bounded domain \({\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^N}\) (\({N\geq 2}\)) with smooth boundary and \({0\in \Omega}\) subject to the homogeneous Dirichlet boundary condition. Denote by \({\lambda_1(\alpha)}\) the first eigenvalue of this problem. Using \({\Gamma}\)-convergence arguments we prove the continuity of the function \({\lambda_1}\) with respect to \({\alpha}\) on the interval \({0,2)}\).