ON THE MOVEMENT OF EXCITATION WAVE BREAKS

Movement of excitation waves in active media, in some cases, can be de scribed by a kinematic approach in terms of the movement of curves, th e wave crests, by neglecting other details such as wave profiles and r efractoriness. Of special interest are broken waves, e.g., spiral wave s. In this case, additional equations for the wave tip movement are re quired. We derive such equations by singular perturbation techniques. These equations differ From those proposed earlier from semi-phenomeno logical arguments [10, 11], are more complicated and diverse and admit a broader variety of solutions. As an illustration, we apply these eq uations to the problem of a stationary rotating spiral wave. In this p articular example, the 'traditional' equations have happened to be a s pecial case. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.