  Helical motifs are ubiquitious in macromolecular systems. The mechanism of
spontaneous emergence of helicity is unknown, especially in cases where
torsional interactions are absent. Emergence of helical order needs coordinated
organization over long distances in polymeric macromolecules. We establish a
very generic mechanism to obtain spontaneous helicity by inducing screened
Coulomb interactions between monomers in a semiflexible heteropolymer. Due to
changes in solvent conditions, different segments (monomers) of a polymeric
chain can get locally charged with charges of differing polarities and
magnitudes along the chain contour. This in turn leads to spontaneous emergence
of transient helical structures along the chain contour for a wide range of
Debye-lengths. We have avoided using torsional potentials to obtain helical
structures and rely only on radially symmetric interactions. Lastly, transient
helices can be made long-lived when they are subjected to geometric
confinement, which can emerge in experimental realizations through a variety of
conditions.
