  Recently there has been a renewed interest in the charge density wave
transition of TiSe2, fuelled by the possibility that this transition may be
driven by the formation of an excitonic insulator or even an excitonic
condensate. We show here that the recent ARPES measurements on TiSe2 can also
be interpreted in terms of an alternative scenario, in which the transition is
due to a combination of Jahn-Teller effects and exciton formation. The hybrid
exciton-phonons which cause the CDW formation interpolate between a purely
structural and a purely electronic type of transition. Above the transition
temperature, the electron-phonon coupling becomes ineffective but a finite
mean-field density of excitons remains and gives rise to the observed diffuse
ARPES signals.
