  We discuss a hopping model of electrons between idealized molecular sites
with local orbital degeneracy and dynamical Jahn-Teller effect, for crystal
field environments of sufficiently high symmetry. For the Mott-insulating case
(one electron per site and large Coulomb repulsions), in the simplest two-fold
degenerate situation, we are led to consider a particular exchange hamiltonian,
describing two isotropic spin-1/2 Heisenberg problems coupled by a quartic term
on equivalent bonds. This twin-exchange hamiltonian applies to a physical
regime in which the inter-orbital singlet is the lowest-energy intermediate
state available for hopping. This regime is favored by a relatively strong
electron-phonon coupling. Using variational arguments, a large-N limit, and
exact diagonalization data, we find that the ground state, in the one
dimensional case, is a solid valence bond state. The situation in the two
dimensional case is less clear. Finally, the behavior of the system upon hole
doping is studied in one dimension.
