Filament Dynamics in Three-Dimensional Reaction-Diffusion Systems

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Oliver Steinbock of Florida State University is suuported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program wihin the Division of Chemistry for research on filament dynamics in three dimensional reaction-diffusion systems. A systematic study of three dimensional chemical waves in a variant of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction is being carried out to test theoretical predictions of interesting scroll waves rotating around circular filaments and other complex wave dynamics. These new experiments are significantly expanding the number of experimental studies of this important reaction thought to be a model for excitable media in biological systems, such as cardiac and neural tissue. Steinbock's research group is devising new experiemental strategies that will allow the controlled fabrication of heterogeneous three dimensional systems that may mimic the heterogeneities found in biological tissue. Cardiac tissue, in particular, is suggested to have the same type of dynamical properties as the BZ medium, so broader impacts are expected in the understanding of sudden cardiac death, shown in prior theoretical studies to be related to the filament dynamics to be studied here.