Exact analytic multi-quanta states of the Davydov Dimer

Abstract

The Davydov model describes amide I energy transfer in proteins without dispersion or dissipation. In spite of five decades of study, there are few exact analytical results, especially for the discrete version of this model. Here we develop two methods to determine the exact orthonormal, multi-quanta, eigenstates of the Davydov dimer. The first method involves the integration of a system of ordinary differential equations and the second method applies purely algebraic methods to this problem. We obtain the general expression of the eigenvalues for any number of quanta and also, as examples, apply the methods to the detailed derivation of the eigenvectors for one to four quanta, plus a brief example in the case of $n=5$ and $n=6$.