THE EVOLUTION OF PATTERNS IN A HOMOGENEOUSLY OSCILLATING MEDIUM

The evolution of concentration patterns from a local disturbance of an unstirred, homogeneously oscillating, chemical system subject to reaction and diffusion is investigated. A new pulse of concentration forms after each homogeneous oscillation until eventually the entire domain is filled. The theory of traveling fronts is used to develop a treatment which is useful in understanding the evolution of these patterns whenever the nullclines of the chemical dynamics have a certain, quite common form. The concepts developed are used to interpret the results of numerical simulation of the behavior of a modified Oregonator model of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.