On the vibron dressing in the $\alpha$--helicoidal macromolecular chains

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vibrational excitations in $ ext{α}$-helicoidal macromolecular chains interact with phonons, revealing temperature-dependent transitions between mobile and immobile vibron states using a mean-field approach.

Contribution

It introduces a variational mean-field method to analyze vibron dressing and identifies conditions for abrupt transitions in vibrational state mobility.

Findings

Identifies a parameter space region with an abrupt transition from partially dressed to fully dressed vibron states.

Shows the boundary of this transition depends on temperature and bond type.

Predicts conditions for vibron mobility changes in macromolecular chains.

Abstract

We present a study of the physical properties of the vibrational excitation in $\alpha$--helicoidal macromolecular chains, caused by the interaction with acoustical and optical phonon modes. The influence of the temperature and the basic system parameters on the vibron dressing has been analyzed by employing the simple mean--field approach based on the variational extension of the Lang--Firsov unitary transformation. Applied approach predicts a region in system parameter space where one takes place an abrupt transition from partially dressed (light and mobile) to fully dressed (immobile) vibron states. We found that the boundary of this region depends on system temperature and type of bond among structural elements in the macromolecular chain.