A space-time adaptive method for simulating complex cardiac dynamics

For plane-wave and many-spiral states of the experimentally bac;ed Luo-Rudy 1 model of heart tissue in large (8 cm square) domains, we show that a spa ce-time-adaptive time-integration algorithm can achieve a factor of 5 reduc tion in computational effort and memory - but without a reduction in accura cy - when compared to an algorithm using a uniform space-time mesh at the f inest resolution. Our results indicate that such an algorithm can be extend ed straightforwardly to simulate quantitatively three-dimensional electrica l dynamics over the whole human heart.