Eur. Phys. J. B 29, 291-294 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00303-x

Soliton dynamics in chiral molecular chains with first- and third-neighbour interactions

Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria

Corresponding author: ^a krad@issp.bas.bg

Received: 1 October 2001
Revised: 30 April 2002
Published online: 2 October 2002

Abstract

We investigate the propagation and interaction of solitons associated with circularly polarized vibrations in gyrotropic media. The chirality of the structure yields different dispersion laws and hence different phase and group velocities for the left- and right-handed modes. The helical arrangement of the monomers is modelled through first- and third-neighbour interactions. The dynamics of the excitations is governed by a system of coupled discrete nonlinear Schrödinger equations which is studied both analytically and numerically. Depending on the initial conditions and the interaction constants, different evolutionary patterns are obtained corresponding to unbound or bound one- and two-soliton solutions. The results can be applied to the process of energy transfer in helical polymers.