The key feature of an orbital wave or orbiton is a significant dispersion, which arises from exchange interactions between orbitals on distinct sites. We study the effect of a coupling between orbitons and phonons in one dimension using continuous unitary transformations. Already for intermediate values of the coupling, the orbiton band width is strongly reduced and the spectral density is dominated by an orbiton-phonon continuum. However, we find sharp features within the continuum and an orbiton-phonon antibound state above. Both show a significant dispersion and should be observable experimentally.where c and b are bosonic operators that represent orbitons and phonons, respectively, orb ex and orb JT =4g 2 / ph denote the contributions to the local orbiton energy from superexchange and from a static Jahn-Teller deformation, 10 J the superexchange coupling constant, ph the phonon energy, and g the coupling between orbitons and phonons. The Jahn-Teller energy orb JT =4g 2 / ph results from the static distortion of the local environment of the transition-metal ion with orbital degeneracy. This distortion lifts the degeneracy such that the PHYSICAL REVIEW B 76, 075108 ͑2007͒