Arm splitting and backfiring of spiral waves in media displaying local mixed-mode oscillations

• Published in: Chaos (Woodbury, N.Y.) Vol. 19; no. 1; p. 013135
• Main Authors: Gao, Qingyu, Zhang, Lu, Wang, Qun, Epstein, I R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-03-2009
• Subjects: Algorithms; Biophysics - methods; Computer Simulation; Diffusion; Kinetics; Models, Theoretical; Nonlinear Dynamics; Oscillometry - methods; Time Factors
• ISSN: 1089-7682
• DOI: 10.1063/1.3093047

The behavior of spiral waves is investigated in a model of reaction-diffusion media supporting local mixed-mode oscillations for a range of values of a control parameter. This local behavior is accompanied by the formation of nodes, at which the arms of the simple spiral waves begin to split. With further parameter changes, this nodal structure loses stability, becoming quite irregular, eventually evolving into turbulence, while the local dynamics increases in complexity. The breakup of the spiral waves arises from a backfiring instability of the nodes induced by the arm splitting. This process of spiral breakup in the presence of mixed-mode oscillations represents an alternative to previously described scenarios of instability of line defects and superspirals in media with period-doubling and quasiperiodic oscillations, respectively.