Motion of spiral waves induced by local pacing

Abstract

Abstract:The motion of spiral waves in excitable media driven by a weak pacing around the spiral tip is investigated numerically as well as theoretically. We presented a Bifurcations diagram containing four types of the spiral motion induced by different frequencies of pacing: rigidly rotating, inward-petal meandering, resonant drift, and outward-petal meandering spiral. Simulation shows that the spiral resonantly drifts when the frequency of pacing is close to that of the spiral rotation. We also find that the speed and direction of the drift can be efficiently controlled by means of the strength and phase of the local pacing, which is consistent with analytical results based on the framework of the weak deformation approximation.