ENERGY LANDSCAPES OF INTERACTING RANDOMLY AND PERIODICALLY CHARGED RIGID POLYAMPHOLYTES

We study the interaction between randomly and irreversibly charged rig id objects. We consider arbitrary parallel displacements of two rod-li ke polyampholytes and of two plates and calculate the statistical prop erties of the resulting energy landscape, such as the distribution of energy minima and the depth, width and density of typical energy wells , as a function of the separation between the objects and of the Debye screening length. The possibility that stick-slip phenomena may arise during relative motion of the objects is discussed. Other cases consi dered in this work are that of random distribution on one rod and a pe riodic one on the other, and that of local periodic order on both rods .