Scroll Waves Pinned to Moving Heterogeneities

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how scroll waves in three-dimensional excitable systems can be pinned and controlled using moving heterogeneities, enabling manipulation of vortex patterns in chemical and numerical models.

Contribution

It introduces a method to pin and move scroll waves using heterogeneities, with a curvature flow model explaining the dynamics involved.

Findings

Scroll waves can be pinned to moving heterogeneities.

The phase singularity stretches along the heterogeneity's path.

The velocity of the singularity's trailing end depends on heterogeneity placement.

Abstract

Three-dimensional excitable systems can selforganize vortex patterns that rotate around one-dimensional phase singularities called filaments. In experiments with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction and numerical simulations, we pin these scroll waves to moving heterogeneities and demonstrate the controlled repositioning of their rotation centers. If the pinning site extends only along a portion of the filament, the phase singularity is stretched out along the trajectory of the heterogeneity which effectively writes the singularity into the system. Its trailing end point follows the heterogeneity with a lower velocity. This velocity, its dependence on the placement of the anchor, and the shape of the filament are explained by a curvature flow model.