  The nearly dispersionless, so-called "optical" vibrational modes observed by
inelastic neutron scattering from icosahedral Al-Pd-Mn and Zn-Mg-Y
quasicrystals are found to correspond well to modes of a continuum elastic
sphere that has the same diameter as the corresponding icosahedral basic units
of the quasicrystal. When the sphere is considered as free, most of the
experimentally found modes can be accounted for, in both systems. Taking into
account the mechanical connection between the clusters and the remainder of the
quasicrystal allows a complete assignment of all optical modes in the case of
Al-Pd-Mn. This approach provides support to the relevance of clusters in the
vibrational properties of quasicrystals.
