Filament Tension and Phase-Locking of Meandering Scroll Waves

H. Dierckx, I. V. Biktasheva, H. Verschelde, A. V. Panfilov, V. N. Biktashev

Submitted to PRL 2017/05/21. Accepted 2017/11/08. Published 2017/12/20 as PRL 119:258101

Meandering spiral waves are often observed in excitable media such as the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction and cardiac tissue. We derive a theory for drift dynamics of meandering rotors in general reaction-diffusion systems and apply it to two types of external disturbances: an external field and curvature-induced drift in three dimensions. We find two distinct regimes: with small filament curvature, meandering scroll waves exhibit filament tension, whose sign determines the stability and drift direction. In the regimes of strong external fields or meandering motion close to resonance, however, phase-locking of the meander pattern is predicted and observed.

Preprint and/or other related files: