Periodic forcing of scroll rings and control of Winfree turbulence in excitable media

Abstract

By simulations of the Barkley model, action of uniform periodic nonresonant forcing on scroll rings and wave turbulence in three-dimensional excitable media is investigated. Sufficiently strong rapid forcing converts expanding scroll rings into the collapsing ones and suppresses the Winfree turbulence caused by the negative tension of wave filaments. Slow strong forcing has an opposite effect, leading to expansion of scroll rings and induction of the turbulence. These effects are explained in the framework of the phenomenological kinematic theory of scroll waves.