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Science 26 October 2001:
Vol. 294. no. 5543, pp. 835 - 837
DOI: 10.1126/science.1064167
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Reports

Inwardly Rotating Spiral Waves in a Reaction-Diffusion System

Vladimir K. Vanag, Irving R. Epstein*

Almost 30 years have passed since the discovery of concentric (target) and spiral waves in the spatially extended Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. Since then, rotating spirals and target waves have been observed in a variety of physical, chemical, and biological reaction-diffusion systems. All of these waves propagate out from the spiral center or pacemaker. We report observations of inwardly rotating spirals found in the BZ system dispersed in water droplets of a water-in-oil microemulsion. These "antispirals" were also generated in computer simulations.

Department of Chemistry and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA.
Department of Chemistry and Volen Center for Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA. E-mail: vanag{at}brandeis.edu, epstein{at}brandeis.edu
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: epstein{at}brandeis.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Coupled and forced patterns in reaction-diffusion systems.
I. R Epstein, I. B Berenstein, M. Dolnik, V. K Vanag, L. Yang, and A. M Zhabotinsky (2008)
Phil Trans R Soc A 366, 397-408
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Multiarm spirals in a two-dimensional cardiac substrate.
N. Bursac, F. Aguel, and L. Tung (2004)
PNAS 101, 15530-15534
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Segmented spiral waves in a reaction-diffusion system.
V. K. Vanag and I. R. Epstein (2003)
PNAS 100, 14635-14638
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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