  We investigate the wrapping conformations of a strongly adsorbed polymer
chain on an oppositely charged nano-sphere by employing a reduced
(dimensionless) representation of a primitive chain-sphere model. This enables
us to determine the global phase behavior of the chain conformation in a wide
range of values for the system parameters including the chain contour length,
its linear charge density and persistence length as well as the nano-sphere
charge and radius, and also the salt concentration in the bathing solution. The
phase behavior of a charged chain-sphere complex can be described in terms of a
few distinct conformational symmetry classes (phases) separated by continuous
or discontinuous transition lines which are determined by means of
appropriately defined (order) parameters. Our results can be applied to a wide
class of strongly coupled polymer-sphere complexes including, for instances,
complexes that comprise a mechanically flexible or semiflexible polymer chain
or an extremely short or long chain and, as a special case, include the
previously studied example of DNA-histone complexes.

Soft Condensed Matter;Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;Statistical Mechanics;Biological Physics