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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Study of Protein Dynamics via Neutron Spin Echo Spectroscopy
Published on: April 13, 2022
Tilting after Dutch windmills: probably no long-lived Davydov solitons in proteins
Robert H Austin1, Aihua Xie, Dan Fu
1Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA. austin@princeton.edu
Abstract:
We present a summary of picosecond pump-probe and photon echo experiments in the mid-IR at 6 mum on the protein myoglobin. The intriguing temperature dependence of the amide I band in Mb is rather similar to the temperature dependence of the amide I band of acetanilide, the molecule that launched Al Scott down the road of looking for Davydov solitons in biology. Alas, after much effort, we believe the data show that there is no long-lived Davydov soliton, at least in myoglobin.
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