Rotating spiral waves of electrical activity in the heart can anchor to unexcitable tissue (an obstacle) and become stable pinned waves. A pinned rotating wave can be unpinned either by a local electrical stimulus applied close to the spiral core, or by an electric field pulse that excites the core of a pinned wave independently of its localization. The wave will be unpinned only when the pulse is delivered inside a narrow time interval called the unpinning window (UW) of the spiral. In experiments with cardiac monolayers, we found that other obstacles situated near the pinning centre of the spiral can facilitate unpinning. In numerical simulations, we found increasing or decreasing of the UW depending on the location, orientation and distance between the pinning centre and an obstacle. Our study indicates that multiple obstacles could contribute to unpinning in experiments with intact hearts.

We study the mechanism of spiral wave unpinning in the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction with a DC electric field. The unpinning is characterized by the phase of the spiral tip around the obstacle boundary at the time of unpinning. We systematically measure the unpinning phase as a function of the chirality of spiral rotation, the initial phase of the spiral, the size of the pinning obstacle, the direction, and the strength of the applied electric field. In both BZ experiments and simulations using the Oregonator model, we observe that the spiral wave always unpins at a fixed position with respect to the applied field. The wave unpins when the electric field component in the direction of the tip velocity of the spiral waves becomes equal to a threshold field strength. From these observations, we deduce a relation between the phase of unpinning, the size of the pinning obstacle, the strength, and the direction of the electric field, and it agrees with our observations. We conclude from our observations that a retarding ‘electric force’ on the chemical wave is responsible for the unpinning in the BZ medium. Our results indicate that the ‘electric force’ is more effective in unpinning when the wave moves away from the anode than when it is moving toward it.

We present the first experimental study of unpinning an excitation wave using a circularly polarized electric field. The experiments are conducted using the excitable chemical medium, the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, which is modeled with the Oregenator model. The excitation wave in the chemical medium is charged so that it can directly interact with the electric field. This is a unique feature of the chemical excitation wave. The mechanism of wave unpinning in the BZ reaction with a circularly polarized electric field is investigated by varying the pacing ratio, the initial phase of the wave, and field strength. The chemical wave in the BZ reaction unpins when the electric force opposite the direction of the spiral is equal to or above a threshold. We developed an analytical relation of the unpinning phase with the initial phase, the pacing ratio, and the field strength. This is then verified in experiments and simulations.

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