Spiral instability to line sources in forced chemical pattern turbulence

Abstract

A stably rotating spiral wave in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction studied in an open spatial reactor becomes unstable when forced by a periodic chemical oscillation. The instability starts from the spiral center and occurs when the ratio of the spiral-rotation period to that of the forcing is close to 3/2. The resulting disordered state involves drifting line sources that emit waves in both directions. These unusual objects are reminiscent of the travelling hole solutions to the one-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation.