On the role of electrodynamic interactions in long-distance biomolecular recognition

The issue of retarded long-range resonant interactions between two molecules with oscillating dipole moments is reinvestigated within the framework of classical electrodynamics. By taking advantage of a theorem in complex analysis, we present a simple method to calculate the frequencies of the normal modes, which are then used to estimate the interaction potential. The main results thus found are in perfect agreement with several results obtained from quantum computations. Moreover, when applied in a biophysical context, our findings shed new light on Fröhlich’s theory of selective long-range interactions between biomolecules. In particular, at variance with a long-standing belief, we show that sizeable resonant long-range interactions may exist only if the interacting system is out of thermal equilibrium. PACS numbers: 34.20.Gj, 03.50.De, 12.20.-m ∗ [email protected] † [email protected] ‡ [email protected] 1 ar X iv :1 40 3. 24 77 v1 [ ph ys ic s. bi oph ] 1 1 M ar 2 01 4