Laws of mutual spiral wave interaction in excitable media

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: De Coster, Tim, Okenov, Arstanbek, Hoogendijk, Debora, Nobacht, Arman, Rivaud, Mathilde, de Vries, Antoine, Pijnappels, Daniël, Rottschäfer, Vivi, Dierckx, Hans
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author De Coster, Tim
Okenov, Arstanbek
Hoogendijk, Debora
Nobacht, Arman
Rivaud, Mathilde
de Vries, Antoine
Pijnappels, Daniël
Rottschäfer, Vivi
Dierckx, Hans
author_facet De Coster, Tim
Okenov, Arstanbek
Hoogendijk, Debora
Nobacht, Arman
Rivaud, Mathilde
de Vries, Antoine
Pijnappels, Daniël
Rottschäfer, Vivi
Dierckx, Hans
contents Interacting rotating spiral waves have been observed in complex systems, such as cardiac fibrillation, cognitive processing in the brain cortex and oscillating chemical reactions, during dynamical regimes that are still poorly understood. We present the equivalent of Newton's gravitational attraction law for spiral waves on planar reaction-diffusion systems. The spiral waves' phases and positions determine their regions of influence, separated by collision interfaces. At the collision interfaces, wave front deflections cause spiral drift that pushes the interfaces forward. As a result, the spiral wave drift velocity is proportional to the total force exerted on on it, which can be determined by a boundary integral over its region of influence. The proportionality factor between force and response is akin to the `mass' of the spiral. However, this spiral mass depends on the region of influence of the spiral and thus also varies over time. The forces between spiral wave pairs are not directed along the line connecting their centers, violating Newton's law of action and reaction. Our solution to the N-body interaction problem for spirals in extended excitable media encompasses both pairwise interactions and spiral wave drift in bounded domains, with application to cardiac fibrillation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_05745
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Laws of mutual spiral wave interaction in excitable media
De Coster, Tim
Okenov, Arstanbek
Hoogendijk, Debora
Nobacht, Arman
Rivaud, Mathilde
de Vries, Antoine
Pijnappels, Daniël
Rottschäfer, Vivi
Dierckx, Hans
Pattern Formation and Solitons
Biological Physics
Interacting rotating spiral waves have been observed in complex systems, such as cardiac fibrillation, cognitive processing in the brain cortex and oscillating chemical reactions, during dynamical regimes that are still poorly understood. We present the equivalent of Newton's gravitational attraction law for spiral waves on planar reaction-diffusion systems. The spiral waves' phases and positions determine their regions of influence, separated by collision interfaces. At the collision interfaces, wave front deflections cause spiral drift that pushes the interfaces forward. As a result, the spiral wave drift velocity is proportional to the total force exerted on on it, which can be determined by a boundary integral over its region of influence. The proportionality factor between force and response is akin to the `mass' of the spiral. However, this spiral mass depends on the region of influence of the spiral and thus also varies over time. The forces between spiral wave pairs are not directed along the line connecting their centers, violating Newton's law of action and reaction. Our solution to the N-body interaction problem for spirals in extended excitable media encompasses both pairwise interactions and spiral wave drift in bounded domains, with application to cardiac fibrillation.
title Laws of mutual spiral wave interaction in excitable media
topic Pattern Formation and Solitons
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05745