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Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 198304 (2008) [4 pages]

Inward Propagating Chemical Waves in a Single-Phase Reaction-Diffusion System

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Xin Shao1, Yabi Wu1, Jinzhong Zhang1, Hongli Wang1,2,3, and Qi Ouyang1,2,3,*
1State Key Laboratory for Mesoscopic Physics, Department of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
2The Beijing–Hong Kong–Singapore Joint Center for Nonlinear and Complex Systems (Peking University), Beijing, 100871, China
3Center for Theoretical Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Received 25 September 2007; published 15 May 2008

We report our experimental and theoretical studies of inwardly propagating chemical waves (antiwaves) in a single-phase reaction-diffusion (RD) system. The experiment was conducted in an open spatial reactor using chlorite-iodide-malonic acid reaction. When the system was set to near Hopf bifurcation point, antiwaves appeared spontaneously, as predicted using both the reaction-diffusion (RD) equation and the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE). Antiwaves change to ordinary waves when the system was moved away from the Hopf onset, which still agreed with RD simulations but could not be predicted by CGLE. We thus witnessed a new type of antiwave—wave exchange. Our analysis showed that this exchange occurred when the CGLE broke down as the system was far from the Hopf onset.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.198304
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.198304
PACS:
82.40.Ck, 47.20.Ky, 47.54.−r, 89.75.Kd

*To whom correspondence may be addressed.

qi@pku.edu.cn