  Quasi-one-dimensional Peierls systems with quantum and thermal lattice
fluctuations can be modeled by a Dirac-type equation with a Gaussian-correlated
off-diagonal disorder. A powerful new method gives the exact disorder-averaged
Green function used to compute the optical conductivity. The strong subgap tail
of the conductivity has a universal scaling form. The frequency and temperature
dependence of the calculated spectrum agrees with experiments on KCP(Br) and
trans-polyacetylene.
