DYNAMICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF SUSTAINED 2-DIMENSIONAL WAVE-TRAINS

Self-sustained trains of excitation waves have been produced in an open annular gel reactor in which the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction was operated. The detailed morphology of the crescent-shaped waves which rotate around the annulus ("excyclons") depends both on the value of the constraints and on the number of waves in the circular wavetrains. Equal spacing between waves is asymptotically reached and a monotonic dispersion relation is found. However, relaxation to the asymptotic state can be oscillatory. A multistability phenomenon between various morphological states is evidenced as a function of constraints (temperature). The variability of the morphology of excyclons seems fundamentally linked to two-dimensional interactions in the wavetrains.