CONVECTIVE EFFECTS ON A PROPAGATING REACTION FRONT

Unstable concentration gradients inherent in traveling chemical waves can give rise to buoyancy-driven convection, altering the speed of the wave. When an excitable Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction system is confi ned within a sufficiently narrow, vertical two-dimensional channel, co nvection arises at a symmetry-breaking bifurcation point. The observed linear rate of change of wave speed with the bifurcation parameter is a necessary consequence of the Z(2) symmetry present. (C) 1998 Americ an Institute of Physics.