title: Mechanism for spiral wave breakup in excitable and oscillatory media.
abstract: We study spiral wave breakup using a Fitzhugh-Nagumo-type system. We find that spiral wave breakup can occur near the core or far from it in both excitable and oscillatory regimes. There is a faraway breakup scenario in both excitable and oscillatory media that depends on long wavelength modulation modes. We observed three distinct scenarios, including one that involves breakup that does not develop into turbulence. However, we find that the mechanisms behind these three scenarios are the same: they are caused by the interaction between the dispersion relation and the asymptotic behavior of the modulation mode. The difference in phenomenology is due to the asymptotic behavior of the modulation mode.
authors: Department of Medicine (Cardiology), University of California, Los Angeles, 90095, USA.
authors: Junzhong
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: Fagen
authors: F
authors: Xie
authors: Zhilin
authors: Z
authors: Qu
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Garfinkel
mesh_terms: D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods*; D004058:Diffusion; D004301:Doppler Effect; D008962:Models, Theoretical