Degenerate elliptic eigenvalue problems with indefinite weights

The purpose of this paper is to provide a careful and accessible exposition of the Krein and Rutman Theory of degenerate elliptic eigenvalue problems with indefinite weights that model population dynamics in environments with spatial heterogeneity. We prove that the first eigenvalue of our problem is algebraically simple and its corresponding eigenfunction may be chosen to be positive everywhere. Here the approach is distinguished by the extensive use of the ideas and techniques characteristic of the recent developments in the theory of partial differential equations. The results extend an earlier theorem due to Manes and Micheletti to the degenerate case.