  The structure of moving nonlinear excitations in one-dimensional
electron-phonon systems is studied semi-phenomenologically by using an
effective action in which the width of the nonlinear excitation is treated as a
dynamical variable. The effective action can be derived from Su, Schrieffer and
Heeger's model or its continuum version proposed by Takayama, Lin-Liu and Maki
with an assumption that the nonlinear excitation moves uniformly without any
deformation except the change of its width. The form of the action is
essentially the same as that discussed by Bishop and coworkers in studying the
dynamics of the soliton in polyacetylene, though some details are different.
For the moving excitation with a velocity $v$, the width is determined by
minimizing the effective action. A requirement that there must be a minimum in
the action as a function of its width provides a maximum velocity. The velocity
dependence of the width and energy can be determined. The motions of a soliton
in p olyacetylene and an acoustic polaron in polydiacetylene are studied within
this formulation. The obtained results are in good agreement with those of
numerical simulations.
