Persistent Currents in the Excitonic Insulator.

Abstract : The energy gap is solved for the excitonic insulator in the presence of persistent currents. In the zero temperature case, an analytical solution is found, while numerical solutions are found for finite temperatures. It is shown that the solutions vary only slightly as the hole-electron mass difference is varied. Critical currents, corresponding to a first-order transition back to the normal phase, are found numerically. (Author)