Autowave reverberator

Spiral waves, referred to in the English literature as a vortex wave or spiral wave, are a special form of two -dimensional chemical waves. Three-dimensional spiral waves are also referred to as scroll waves. The possibility of the formation of spiral waves was first predicted theoretically in 1946 by Norbert Wiener and Arturo Rosenblueth. Watch can be spiral waves, for example, in the excitation of the heart muscle.

Autocatalytic waves occur either as a closed circular wave fronts, or they have two ends which touch the boundaries of the medium. The third aspect, that the spiral shafts are however characterized in that one end of the wave front always running at the medium border along, while the other of the core, moves freely in the medium. This movement can run on different paths, which are determined by the nature of the medium and on the specific diffusion and reaction parameters. One can distinguish closed and open trajectories in itself. In the self-contained trajectories are found circular orbits and elliptical orbits. Depending on the constellation of the parameters, the cores can also drift. In this way, often closed rosettes arise in itself. But it can also lead to quasi-periodic motions, with open rosettes arise. Collides the core of the spiral wave with a medium boundary, the result is again a closed wave front by now touch both ends of the shaft, the medium boundary, thus the existence of the spiral wave is completed.

In principle, spiral waves arise by breaking a closed wave front. This can be done in different ways.