  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 the 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.
