| Abstract
| - The complexation between a semiflexible polyelectrolyte and an oppositely charged macroionleads to a multitude of structures ranging from tight complexes with the chain wrapped around themacroion to open multileafed rosettelike complexes. Rosette structures, expected to occur for short-rangedattractions between the macroion and the chain, have now also been seen in recent Monte Carlosimulations with long-range (unscreened) interactions (Macromolecules2002, 35, 5183). The current studyprovides scaling theories for both cases and shows that rosette structures are indeed quite robust againstchanges in the ionic strength. However, the transition from the wrapped to the rosette configuration hasa dramatically different characteristics: The short-range case leads to a sharp transition into a rosettewith large leaves whereas the long-range case occurs in a continuous fashion. We provide the completediagram of states for both cases.
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