  In order to explain and model the inner ring in photoluminescence (PL)
patterns of indirect excitons in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells (QWs), we develop a
microscopic approach formulated in terms of coupled nonlinear equations for the
diffusion, thermalization and optical decay of the particles. The origin of the
inner ring is unambiguously identified: it is due to cooling of indirect
excitons in their propagation from the excitation spot. We infer that in our
high-quality structures the in-plane diffusion coefficient is about 10-30cm^2/s
and the amplitude of the disorder potential is about 0.45meV.
