The motion of spiral waves in excitable media driven by a weak pacing around the spiral tip is investigated numerically as well as theoretically. We presented a Bifurcations diagram containing four types of the spiral motion induced by different frequencies of pacing: rigidly rotating, inward-petal meandering, resonant drift, and outward-petal meandering spiral. Simulation shows that the spiral resonantly drifts when the frequency of pacing is close to that of the spiral rotation. We also find that the speed and direction of the drift can be efficiently controlled by means of the strength and phase of the local pacing, which is consistent with analytical results based on the framework of the weak deformation approximation.
We study pattern formation induced by a spiral wave developing from heterogeneities in an excitable medium. Turbulence can be suppressed by a spiral wave from the heterogeneity, forming multiple coexistent systems of regular geometrical patterns. We find that the types of these patterns depend critically on the degree of heterogeneity. The underlying mechanism is due to dispersion relation which is characterized by excitability.
A stochastic cellular automaton is developed for modeling waves in excitable media. A scale of key features of excitation waves can be reproduced in the presented framework such as the shape, the propagation velocity, the curvature effect and spontaneous appearance of target patterns. Some well-understood phenomena such as waves originating from a point source, double spiral waves and waves around some obstacles of various geometries are simulated. We point out that unlike the deterministic approaches, the present model captures the curvature effect and the presence of target patterns without permanent excitation. Spontaneous appearance of patterns, which have been observed in a new experimental system and a chemical lens effect, which has been reported recently can also be easily reproduced. In all cases, the presented model results in a fast computer simulation.
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