Models of coherent exciton condensation

That excitons in solids might condense into a phase-coherent ground state was proposed about 40 years ago, and has been attracting experimental and theoretical attention ever since. Although experimental confirmation has been hard to come by, the concepts released by this phenomenon have been widely influential. This tutorial review discusses general aspects of the theory of exciton and polariton condensates, focussing on the reasons for coherence in the ground state wavefunction, the BCS to Bose crossover(s) for excitons and for polaritons, and the relationship of the coherent condensates to standard lasers.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures. Submitted for a special issue of J. Phys. Cond. Matt. associated with the EU network "Photon-mediated phenomena in semiconductor nanostructures