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Phys. Rev. E 67, 026221 (2003) [9 pages]

Wave-particle dualism of spiral waves dynamics

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I. V. Biktasheva*
CFD Laboratory, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ, United Kingdom

V. N. Biktashev
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool University, Mathematics & Oceanography Building, Peach Street, Liverpool, L69 7ZL, United Kingdom

Received 11 July 2002; published 27 February 2003

We demonstrate and explain a wave-particle dualism of such classical macroscopic phenomena as spiral waves in active media. That means although spiral waves appear as nonlocal processes involving the whole medium, they respond to small perturbations as effectively localized entities. The dualism appears as an emergent property of a nonlinear field and is mathematically expressed in terms of the spiral waves response functions, which are essentially nonzero only in the vicinity of the spiral wave core. Knowledge of the response functions allows quantitatively accurate prediction of the spiral wave drift due to small perturbations of any nature, which makes them as fundamental characteristics for spiral waves as mass is for the condensed matter.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.67.026221
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.67.026221
PACS:
82.40.Bj, 02.60.Cb, 64.60.Ht, 87.10.+e

*Corresponding author: Department of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Chadwick Building, Peach Street, Liverpool L69 7ZF, UK.

On leave from Institute for Mathematical Problems in Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 142292 Pushchino, Moscow region, Russia.