Counterion-mediated electrostatic interactions between helical molecules

We study the counterion-mediated electrostatic interaction of two cylindrical macroions with helical charge distribution by analysing their separation as well as the azimuthal angle dependence of the interaction force in the weak and strong electrostatic coupling limit. While the azimuthal dependence of the interaction in the weak coupling limit is overall small and mostly negligible, the strong coupling limit leads to qualitatively new features of the interaction, among others to an orientationally dependent optimal configuration that is driven by angular dependence of the correlation attraction. We investigate the properties of this azimuthal ordering in detail and compare it to existing results.