Prediction of charge and dipole solitons in DNA molecules based on the behaviour of phosphate bridges as tunnel elements

Motivated by our view of chemical bonds as tunnel elements and by the studies of one-dimensional arrays of mesoscopic tunnel junctions, we investigate charge and dipole soliton dynamics in DNA molecules. We predict the existence of charge solitons in single-strand DNA and of charge and dipole solitons in double-strand DNA. We discuss possible roles of these excitations in DNA functioning, and propose specific experiments for testing our predictions.