Dynamical effects of phonons on soliton binding in quasi-one-dimensional spin–Peierls systems

The role of dynamical magneto-elastic coupling in spin–Peierls chains is investigated by various numerical techniques. We show that, generically, a Heisenberg spin chain coupled to dynamical optical phonons exhibits a transition towards a spontaneously dimerized state. The low energy excitations are characterized as topological solitons. No binding between solitons occurs in the isolated spin–phonon chain. However, elastic interchain coupling …