title: Front propagation and pattern formation in anisotropic bistable media
abstract: The effects of diffusion anisotropy on pattern formation in bistable media are studied using a FitzHugh-Nagumo reaction-diffusion model. A relation between the normal velocity of a front and its curvature is derived and used to identify distinct spatiotemporal patterns induced by the diffusion anisotropy. In a wide parameter range anisotropy is found to have an ordering effect: initial patterns evolve into stationary or breathing periodic stripes parallel to one of the principal axes. In a different parameter range, anisotropy is found to induce spatiotemporal chaos confined to one space dimension, a state we term "stratified chaos."
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut fur Physik komplexer Systeme, Nothnitzer Strasse 38, 01187 Dresden, Germany and The Blaustein Institute for Desert Research and the Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University, Sede Boker Campus 84990, Israel.
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hagberg
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meron
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Thiele