Theory of colossal magnetoresistance

The history and recent developments in studying (colossal) magnetoresistance in perovskite manganese oxides is reviewed. We emphasize the growing evidence for strongly coupled spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom. Together with disorder, these provide the microscopic driving forces for local and inhomogeneous textures. The modeling and experimental probes for localized charge-spin-lattice (polaron) structures, and their multiscale ordering, is discussed in terms of a growing synergy of solid state physics and materials science perspectives.