Threaded Rings that Swim in Excitable Media

Cincotti, Antonio; Maucher, Fabian; Evans, David; Chapin, Brette M.; Horner, Kate; Bromley, Elizabeth; Lobb, Andrew; Steed, Jonathan W.; Sutcliffe, Paul

Abstract

Cardiac tissue and the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction provide two notable examples of excitable media that support scroll waves, in which a filament core is the source of spiral waves of excitation. Here we consider a novel topological configuration in which a closed filament loop, known as a scroll ring, is threaded by a pair of counterrotating filaments that are perpendicular to the plane of the ring and end on the boundary of a thin medium. We simulate the dynamics of this threaded ring (thring) in the photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky excitable medium, using the modified Oregonator reaction-diffusion equations. These computations reveal that the threading topology induces an exotic motion in which the thring swims in the plane of the ring. We propose a light templating protocol to create a thring in the photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky medium and provide experimental confirmation that this protocol indeed yields a thring

Citation

Cincotti, A., Maucher, F., Evans, D., Chapin, B. M., Horner, K., Bromley, E., Lobb, A., Steed, J. W., & Sutcliffe, P. (2019). Threaded Rings that Swim in Excitable Media. Physical Review Letters, 123(25), Article 258102. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.258102

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 20, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 20, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jan 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 9, 2020
• Journal: Physical Review Letters
• Print ISSN: 0031-9007
• Electronic ISSN: 1079-7114
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 123
• Issue: 25
• Article Number: 258102
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.258102
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1280283