Small polaron dynamics: A self-consistent nonlinear spin-field model (Q1069195)

The authors study the onset of stochasticity as a result of varying either the ratio of the electron hopping rate and the electron-lattice coupling or the total energy in a model of a small polaron, that is, an electron strongly trapped and localized to a lattice deformation. In the authors' model the trapped electron remains confined to two adjacent diatomic molecules and gradually the probability density of its wave function shifts from one molecule to the other. The model uses the machinery of a semiclassical Hamiltonian approach in which a two state electron is coupled to an external field and a reaction field.