Abstract
We use a new spectral-density approach to find the temperature behavior of the quasiparticle density of states for the conduction band of a ferromagnetic semiconductor. Because of the exchange interaction between conduction electrons and localized spin system (4f moments in the case of Eu chalcogenides), the conduction band splits into several quasiparticle subbands. The famous red shift of the optical absorption edge is almost quantitatively explained as a bandwidth effect of the lower ↑ subband. The striking band-filling dependence of the red shift, first observed by Schoenes and Wachter for Eu1xGdxO, finds a natural interpretation by the existence and temperature dependence of quasiparticles in the conduction band of a ferromagnetic semiconductor EuO.