Resonance induced pacemakers: A new class of organizing centers for wave propagation in excitable media - art. no. 238302

Propagation of waves in an extended excitable system is considered. It is s hown that traveling wave fronts can be triggered and maintained via local p eriodic modulations of an appropriate system parameter. For a finite range of perturbation frequencies, this new class of pacemakers introduces spatio temporal self-organization in an otherwise quiescent medium. Excitation wav es of activity similar to those observed in heart tissue cultures and other biological preparations can emerge in the presence of these pacemakers.