Van der Waals interactions between polymers with sequence-specific polarizabilities: Stiff polymers and Gaussian coils

Abstract

We consider the van der Waals interaction between a pair of polymers with quenched heterogeneous sequences of local polarizabilities along their backbones, and study the effective pairwise interaction energy for both stiff polymers and flexible Gaussian coils. In particular, we focus on the cases where the pair of polarizability sequences are (i) distinct and (ii) identical. We find that the pairwise interaction energies of distinct and identical Gaussian coils are both isotropic and exhibit the same decay behavior for separations larger than their gyration radius, in contradistinction to the orientationally anisotropic interaction energies of distinct and identical stiff polymers. For both Gaussian coils and stiff polymers, the attractive interaction between identical polymers is enhanced if the polarizability sequence is more heterogeneous.