The Reversal and Splitting of Waves in an Excitable Medium Caused by an Electrical Field

Abstract

The reversal and splitting of traveling concentration waves was observed in a one-dimensional Belousov-Zhabotinski reaction medium under the influence of low-intensity electric field gradients (∼10 V per centimeter). The wave reversal and splitting were strongly correlated with a characteristic transformation of the shape of both the wave front and the refractory tail of a wave in the local field gradient. The secondary role of generated hydrodynamic flow on wave transformation was also investigated.